Suffolk family's disbelief as Wizz Air flights cancelled twice

Families caught up in the continuing chaos at airports have expressed "disbelief" at having their flights cancelled with little or no notice.

The Hunt family, from Beccles, Suffolk, were supposed to fly to Larnaca in Cyprus with friends, but had their flights cancelled twice by Wizz Air.

The aviation industry made thousands of staff redundant during the pandemic and has struggled to recruit, leading to staff shortages and cancellations.

Wizz Air has apologised to customers.

Rachel Hunt said their first flight was cancelled after they arrived at Gatwick Airport, having left their home at 02:00 GMT on Wednesday, 1 June.

"To get all the way to the airport and just sit there and get a text message at 08:30 to say your flight has just been cancelled, we were like 'right, now what do we do?'," she said.

"There was no-one from the airline there... we felt completely on our own."

She managed to get another flight booked two days later. That time, they also booked a hotel close to Gatwick.

"We got all the way to the boarding gate only to get another message just as we were about to board the flight," she said.

"I was just in disbelief, I thought once is unlucky, but twice is just ridiculous. I was in tears."

Mrs Hunt said she had lost her mother last year and the holiday was a much needed "bit of escapism".

She said she was "really disappointed" with Wizz Air.

"I'm really, really, dissatisfied that no-one's been in touch - we've just had automated emails," said Mrs Hunt.

Her husband, Sam, said there were "people going through worse things" but expectations could have been handled better by the airline.

After speaking to border control Mr Hunt said "it was really apparent these flights weren't going to be fulfilled".

"They were able to tell us the proportion of flights that were going to be cancelled every day," he said.

He said it would be obvious to the flight companies too, adding they should cancel flights earlier so as to be able to deliver on others.

"There's a calculation being made somewhere," he said.

"The flights have been sold, they've not been delivered. Clearly there's compensation that we will be due at some point, it seems like a strange business model."

The family had paid £800 for flights, but reckon they are £1,000 out of pocket taking all their expenses into consideration.

Gillian Mansbridge, from Mattishall in Norfolk, managed to get to Cyprus with her family, a party of seven, including two babies, but could not get back on Friday, and had to organise four extra nights at a hotel on the Mediterranean island.

She said they finally got home on Wednesday, but were exhausted after spending days trying to contact Wizz Air and sort replacement flights and accommodation.

"Nappies had all run out, baby milk had all run out, my medication had run out, my daughter's had run out," she said.

Ms Mansbridge, who works with students with additional needs, said other holidaymakers had also been told to go to the airport only to find their second flight had been cancelled.

She said both her and her daughter, who works in an NHS operating theatre, had had to use up more of their annual leave due to the delays getting home.

"It [cancellations] can't always be helped, but I just think to have something happen on the scale it's happened, they must have seen this coming," she said.

"There are still people out there who can't get back. I would never fly with them [Wizz Air] again."

In a statement, Wizz Air "sincerely apologised" to customers.

It added: "There is a widespread shortage in staff, in particular within air traffic control, ground operations and baggage handling, security and across airports."

Find BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email [email protected]