'Carnage' at Bristol Airport as flights delayed and cancelled

Bristol Airport has apologised to customers who experienced delays, last-minute cancellations, and long queues.

Passengers posted photographs on social media earlier showing long lines of people outside the terminal building.

Some holidays have been cancelled and families have been told to go home after waiting hours at the airport.

The airport said it had been planning for its busiest week since 2019, with more than 300,000 passengers expected between 26 May - 5 June.

A combination of delayed and cancelled flights over the past few days led to queues and packed departure halls.

The Thomson family from Stoke Bishop had their TUI trip to Sharm el Sheikh cancelled when they arrived at the airport on Sunday.

"We got there all excited, walked in and were told straight away our holiday was cancelled - we didn't even hit a queue - they knew," said Hannah.

"One hundred and ninety of us were given a telephone number and were making the same call all at once.

"As far as we know, no one got through.

"We were left to fend for ourselves, there was no apology at the time, no announcements. It was carnage."

The family said no TUI staff were at the airport. They waited three hours attempting to book another holiday before being told to go home.

Nicol Thomson said: "It was horrible, lots of upset people everywhere who'd been there since 5am, a real mess."

Bristol Airport tweeted customers earlier and said: "We appreciate the frustration experienced by customers early this morning & apologise for the queues at security, which reached 90 minutes for a short period.

"Over 80% of our customers experience less than a 20-minute security queue; only during peak times we extend beyond this."

Debbie Wardar and Tara Pring were part of a group due to be flying to Majorca to meet their friends.

"A few minutes before the flight was due to leave we were told it was cancelled, there was no explanation," Mrs Pring said.

"There was no food in shops, we couldn't even get a bottle of water - Burger King closed because they ran out of burgers."

Ms Wardar was concerned about people's safety in a packed airport.

"If there'd been an emergency, like a fire, we'd have stood no chance.

"Everyone was sitting on the floor with suitcases everywhere," she said.

"We'd been at the gate an hour, we could see the plane out of the window."

Mrs Pring said "We've worked really hard through Covid for this holiday, two of our friends are already there so it's frustrating for everyone."

"We're in shock, absolute shock."

Easyjet apologised to the group for their flight cancellation and said: "This was due to air traffic control restrictions causing a delay on a previous flight, which led to the crew being unable to operate the flight to Palma without reaching their legally permitted operating hours.

"While this was outside of our control, we nonetheless fully understand the disruption this will have caused to people's plans and we are very sorry for this."