Six-hour airport delay left my autistic son in panic, says dad

The father of a boy with a life-limiting condition has accused holiday company Tui of abandoning his family at a Greek airport.

Dean Bateman, from Wallsend, said he, his fiancée and two sons felt "helpless" when they were delayed overnight for more than six hours.

Five-year-old Joey, who has autism and a muscle-wasting condition, became so distressed he vomited.

Tui said the family can claim for compensation.

Mr Bateman told BBC Radio Newcastle the "amazing" trip turned into a nightmare.

"It was one of the worst experiences of my life, knowing you're pretty helpless in a foreign country," he said.

"I couldn't just get in the car and drive Joey to a hotel or even get him comfortable."

With their flight due to take off at 00:40 on Wednesday, the family were alerted by friends on Tyneside 12-and-a-half hours earlier that a delay was likely.

Mr Bateman said they were told the plane from Newcastle to Heraklion - the one they would be returning on - had been due to take off at 17:35 but was delayed until 23:40.

"I checked my Tui app and emails and there was no information until I got an email at 18:30 saying it was delayed until 07:00 the next day," he said.

He called the travel company to tell them about his son's disability and said the family were assured they would be put in a hotel at the airport.

"Joey has a life-limiting muscle-wasting condition called Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy affecting the muscles in his arms, legs, back and chest.

"He has a big bed at home so if he has a spasm he's comfortable but at the airport we had the choice to force him to sleep in a cramped buggy or sleep on a stone-cold, hard floor."

In a series of tweets posted on Wednesday, Mr Bateman branded Tui "a disgrace of a company", saying his son was "absolutely traumatised" and vomited over himself.

Mr Bateman said the family had paid £2,860 for the week-long break in Analisa and his boys had had "one of the best holidays ever" but the experience at the airport and lack of information from the travel company had "put him off" booking another.

In a statement, Tui acknowledged the family's frustrations and said they would be able to claim compensation for the flight which was delayed due to "operational issues".

It said the family could not be offered overnight accommodation because of a "lack of availability".

"We did contact passengers to inform them of the delay but appreciate we could have done more to keep them updated and accept we fell short of our usually high standards," the company said.

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