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DESPAIR-PORT
200,000 holidaymakers stranded by air traffic chaos & face up to 2 weeks’ delay – as UK air boss doubles pay to £1.3m
HOLIDAY Brits caught in plane delays chaos faced being stuck for two weeks last night as it emerged the boss of UK air traffic control has doubled his pay.
About 200,000 irate travellers were told their first available flights home could be at the end of next week.
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Air boss Martin Rolfe’s total pay has hit £1.3million.
Furious holidaymakers face mounting costs to cover food and hotel rooms with no idea who is footing the bill.
Megan Gaffney — stranded in Fuerteventura with her earliest flight not until September 7 — said: “I’ve four children with me that are so upset and frightened.”
Airport staff said there were no hotels available but she and others demanded action. Megan said: “They found somewhere at 2am where at least 20-plus people were put.
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“We have to check out at lunchtime and have nowhere to go.”
Monday’s “technical error” led to the cancellation of 790 departures and 785 arrivals — 27 per cent of all flights — leaving many planes and crew in the wrong places.
The Government and the National Air Traffic Services ruled out a cyber attack, but they did not deny speculation that a single rogue flight plan wrongly inputted by a French airline caused it all.
The disruption meant NATS had to input flight plans manually.
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The firm’s latest annual reports admit that it is using ageing systems which have had a longer lifespan than originally planned.
The Civil Aviation Authority is investigating the turmoil.
It has exposed a loophole which means there is no right to additional compensation from airlines where disruption is caused by “extraordinary circumstances”.
Many fed-up travellers had to sleep in departure lounges, only to then be told their flights were cancelled even after they had boarded.
Vicki Ostrowski is stuck in Oslo, Norway, after attending her son’s wedding. She is due to return on Saturday but will run out of heart medication on Thursday.
Her group includes a wheelchair user with a neurological disease plus an 83-year-old.
Vicki said: “Today is also my 50th birthday, so plans had to be cancelled.
"It’s already cost my group £1,000 for hotels for two nights, and despite the promise of reimbursement it is not OK.”
She said booking earlier flights would cost her party £4,000.
There was just as much frustration at UK airports with people unable to travel abroad.
Katrina Harrison and her family, including year-old twin grandchildren, spent the night at Leeds-Bradford Airport after their flight to Antalya, Turkey, was cancelled.
Ms Harrison, of Stockton-on-Tees, said: “We tried to sleep on the floor. The holiday is supposed to be a family celebration. We’ve spent £12,000 and been treated like muck.”
Ex-Celtic footie boss Neil Lennon had his head in his hands as he queued for hours at Glasgow airport.
He was heading to London to work for Sky Sports. An onlooker said: “He looked stressed, hot and bothered.”
Airlines vented their anger at Nats for a lack of information.
Ryanair chief Michael O’Leary said: “We haven’t had an explanation on the cause, and where were their back-up systems? It’s not acceptable.”
Around 250 Ryanair flights carrying 40,000 passengers were cancelled on Monday, with 70 axed yesterday.
Knock-on disruption in the coming days is likely. At least 32 departures and 31 arrivals were cancelled at Heathrow yesterday.
BA was the worst hit with around 60 flights axed.
By 9am yesterday 147 flights departing UK airports had been cancelled, along with 134 arrivals — five per cent of the total, said aviation analysts Cirium. The numbers were expected to rise through the day.
Transport Secretary Mark Harper announced an independent review into the outage, the worst since 2014.
PM Rishi Sunak said: “I know people will be enormously frustrated.”
Nats CEO Martin Rolfe apologised last night and said: “While we resolved the problem quickly, I am very conscious that the knock-on effects at such a busy time of year are still being felt by many people.
“I’d like to reassure everyone that since Monday afternoon all our systems have been running normally to support airline and airport operations as they recover from this incident.”
- Additional reporting by Natasha Clark and Ashley Armstrong
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NO CASH, NO HEART MEDS
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KEN Blanks and wife Lisa fear they will be stuck in the airport on Gran Canaria for 12 days.
They could not afford the airport’s offer of a £100-a-night hotel.
He also suffers heart problems and is terrified because his medication will not last 12 days.
Ken, 71, of Bristol, said: “I’ve finished my holiday but there’s nobody from easyJet talking to us.
“The next flight is in 12 days so we’re stuck here. The airport offered some families hotels but they have to keep getting taxis there and back. It’s 200 euros from the airport.”
DELAYED UP TO SIX DAYS
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CRICKET correspondent Rory Dollard, 40, was told it might be six days before his family can get home.
The PA Media writer, his wife Joanne, 40, and children Emily, ten, and Arthur, eight, are struggling to get a flight from Bergerac airport in France.
Ryanair passenger Rory, from Skipton, North Yorks, said: “It’s hard with the language barrier to work out who’s responsible for the cost for a hotel.”
STRANDED ON SPANISH ISLE
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PROPERTY consultant Phil Crawford, 62, is stranded and fears he has no chance of coming home soon.
He told The Sun he arrived with his partner in Palma, Majorca, on August 21 and was due home on Sunday.
Phil, from Manchester, said: “We have no prospect of coming home at the moment.
“I’ve booked our hotel, because easyJet are not offering us anything. They just don’t care. This is the third night in a hotel that we’re paying for, food, meals and transport, too.
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“We have looked at flights back to anywhere in the UK.
“I’m very happy to go via anywhere else. There appears to be nothing available.”
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