UK holidaymakers were stranded at airports in the Canary Islands after flights were disrupted by a severe storm.
Many travellers expressed frustration that they were not provided with accommodation.
More than 70 flights were affected when the popular Spanish islands were hit by strong winds and heavy rain on Sunday, according to Spanish state broadcaster RTVE.
Aircraft were forced to divert to the Canary Island of Fuerteventura as well as Faro, Portugal and Marrakesh, Morocco as they were unable to land on Tenerife and Lanzarote.
Around 1,000 passengers spent the night at Fuerteventura airport, according to local media.
Jason Wilkinson, 30, from London, has been stranded at the airport for 21 hours with his pregnant girlfriend after their Thomas Cook Airlines flight to Lanzarote was diverted.
He said they slept on the floor in the terminal building among several families with babies and children.
There were “lots of tears”, he told the Press Association.
Mr Wilkinson said he was able to book a hotel room nearby despite being told by Thomas Cook that none were available.
But he was unable to retrieve his bag and was not permitted to leave the airport.
“I wasted my money,” he said. “I don’t even know where to begin in terms of getting compensated for this utter mess.”
He added that his girlfriend needed folic acid pregnancy tablets from her suitcase, while other families are being denied access to their medication and nappies for babies.
Tui customer Teri McGuinness has been stuck at Tenerife South Airport for more than 15 hours.
The hairdresser from Essex described the situation as an “absolute joke”, and complained that she was unable to find anyone representing the company.
In a Twitter message to the firm, she wrote: “Having your customers sleep on the floor rather that put them up in accommodation is shocking!”
Thomas Cook Airlines said it was “very sorry” for the inconvenience caused by flights being diverted due to bad weather.
A spokeswoman for the tour operator said hotel accommodation could not be found for all affected passengers due to the large number of people at airports.
Customers who spent the night at the airport were given food and drink vouchers and the firm’s ground handling agents were there to provide support and answer questions, she said.
Thomas Cook Airlines expected Monday’s flight schedule to operate as planned but warned “small delays” may occur.
A Tui spokesman apologised for the disruption to flights, adding: “Due to the amount of flights disrupted in Tenerife we were unable to find accommodation for our passengers, so welfare was issued instead.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel