Naomi Thomas’ stepdaughter Annie was supposed to be on a school trip to France today, but she was lost after the family’s flight home from a mid-term holiday in Portugal was canceled.
The primary school teacher is currently stranded with her classmate Danny Massey, who also works at a school as a site manager, and two stepchildren, ages 13 and 14, in Paris, France.
They are trapped there on their reorganized journey from Faro to Crewe, Cheshire, after their easyJet direct flight from Portugal to Liverpool was canceled on Saturday night.
Luckily, her school is not open today, but her partner and stepdaughter, Alfie, should have both been at school.
They fear that there will be no chance of returning today, with all Eurostar flights and trains fully booked, and they cannot get ferry tickets or find rental cars that will allow them to pick them up in France and leave for England.
They already have between £ 2,000 and £ 2,500 in their pockets and are not yet at home.
“It’s been a nightmare,” Ms Thomas told Sky News after her first holiday in five years.
They were ready to board their flight from Faro when it was canceled and ended up spending the night at the airport, during which they managed to book a flight to Paris for the next morning and Eurostar tickets to the UK.
But “there was more chaos at Gard du Nord than at Faro airport,” he said.
Image: The family has been trapped in Paris since Sunday morning
Eurostar passengers faced delays and cancellations on Sunday due to power supply problems near Paris.
“That’s when the reality was that we were trapped, that we were now trapped in Paris, with no way back in the UK,” he said.
“We tried to arrange the school trip on this side to France so that Annie could join the school trip, but unfortunately they had arrived in Calais so early in the morning that we had no way to get there.
“Then we had to tell her the bad news and she was very disappointed.”
The family is now booked on a Eurostar service because it will leave Paris on Tuesday afternoon.
Asked how she felt, she replied: “Angry with the easyJet … we were about to board a plane that, in our opinion, had no intention of ever returning with passengers.”
Image: Naomi Thomas has criticized easyJet for its lack of communication and support after the canceled flight
“We are not the only ones. There are so many people in a similar situation,” he added, criticizing the airline’s lack of communication and support in finding alternative flights, hotel accommodation and food and drink.
EasyJet apologized for the outage “due to the difficult operating environment” and said customers had options to re-book or receive a refund, along with hotel accommodation and meals when needed. .
The airline added that it had also given customers information on how to organize it quickly online or through the app.
Hundreds of flights to and from the UK have been canceled in the past week, and Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has said that airlines and travel companies have “seriously sold flights and holidays in relation to with its ability to deliver “despite government warnings.
The aviation industry is suffering from a shortage of staff after thousands of people were released during the coronavirus pandemic.
Airlines are now struggling to hire new workers and process security checks, which they say are being delayed by government bureaucracy.
Image: Naomi Thomas’ stepdaughters Alfie and Annie were sleeping under their towels at Faro Airport in Portugal after their easyJet flight to Liverpool was canceled on Saturday night
After a meeting with airports, airlines and ground service companies last week, the cabinet minister said he had responded to industry demands to speed up worker safety checks and allow some employees with non-safety-related jobs can be trained immediately.
He said that “it will do absolutely everything possible so that” summer visitors can go out without problems during the summer, but that it is the responsibility of the sector to solve the problems.
Shapps said: “Clearly, they’ve been amazed at how people have traveled again after two years of closure, but I’m not surprised; we said all the time, ‘You have to be prepared for that.’ “