Family describes ‘nightmare’ holiday after getting stuck in Turkey

A Rochdale family that went on a holiday to Turkey did not imagine that it would soon turn into a nightmare due to the UK air traffic control failure.

Shamila Kauser travelled to Antalya with her husband and their four children, along with her brother and his family.

The 40-year-old admitted that she was “stressed out” after learning that they could not make it back to the UK on 28 August according to what they had initially planned. Instead, they were forced to stay five days longer.

Kauser said that even reserving a single flight for her family was “impossible” leading her to spend £3500 on an alternative airline, to secure the next available return flight.

Distressed due to the way events were unfolding, she said: “I’m stressed out and very anxious. It’s been a nightmare.”

She then came across the expensive alternative flight and is uncertain whether she will receive reimbursement.

Kauser took the booking out of concern that she might not be able to return to the UK until September 8 due to a scarcity of available flights. However, her travel provider, On The Beach, managed to secure a flight for her family with Jet2 Airlines at 11:55 pm on September 1, even though they had originally planned to fly with easyJet.

She added: “On The Beach had to book me with another airline because easyJet had no seats until September 8.

“I’ve got to go to work and the kids have to go to school, so I don’t have time to be waiting that long.”

The family had travelled to Turkey from Manchester but ended up returning to the UK at Leeds Bradford Airport which cost the family even more time and money.

Kauser’s brother Imran Ahmed suffered a similar fate after the flight he was going to take with his family got cancelled an hour before they were supposed to board it.

Ahmed claimed that they received no support from the airline staff of easyJet. He said, “I’ve never been in this situation before. There was no rep from the airline.”

“Travel Republic – the travel operator that we went with – they had nobody there either. We were just left to our own devices.”

However, eventually he was able to book another easyJet flight to Liverpool Airport and considered himself “lucky” for being able to do so without having to pay an extortionate amount.