Family 'seething' after 17-hour Birmingham Airport wait amid delay chaos

A father says he is "seething" after his family were forced to wait 17 hours to board a plane at Birmingham Airport.

Adam Ashbery, 38, was scheduled to fly with Tui to Kefalonia, in Greece, at about 15:30 BST on Sunday with his wife, Sarah, and two children - aged four months and five years old.

However, a series of delays and "flight issues" meant the family did not take off until the following day.

Tui has apologised for a string of recent delays and cancellations.

"The compensation is not worth the stress and hassle that we've had with our two young children spending 17 hours in the airport," the father-of-two told BBC Radio WM.

"It's our first holiday in three years and the children are really looking forward to it.

"There were people who were going to get married and children were crying, they were heartbroken."

After initially facing a long wait to board the plane on Sunday, Mr Ashbery said a member of staff advised passengers "there was a problem with the flight" and they would have to wait a further three hours.

By 22:00, the holiday-makers said they were told the flight was cancelled and they would have to return home.

"I'm seething", Mr Ashbery said.

"The only answer we've been given is 'a combination of reasons.'"

On Tuesday, a number of passengers have also reported having to wait for hours to collect their luggage and pass through the security gates.

Melanie Johns tweeted: "Sat at Birmingham Airport waiting for luggage after going to Lanzarote, four hours sat waiting for cases with medication in - what an absolute joke."

Gemma Snell reported a "two-hour" queue at the check-in desk.

In a statement, a Tui spokesperson said: "The sudden increase in people going on holidays combined with various operational and supply chain issues, has meant that a small number of our flights have been impacted."

The airline said its teams had "been working tirelessly to support affected customers".

Birmingham Airport said: "Pre-flight security queues were managed and steadily moving this morning with queue times varying from 10 - 50 minutes."

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