A family whose flights from Milan to Manchester Airport were cancelled on Friday due to the global IT outage said their dream holiday had been “ruined”. Nicole Raby was on a four-day break on Italy’s picturesque Lake Como with her 53-year-old mother Lisete Raby and sister Tracy Raby when their scheduled Ryanair flight on July 19 was among thousands of cancelled flights.
Nicole and her mum are still trying to get home on Sunday after two more flights were cancelled over the weekend. Tracey managed to get home on one of the few flights to the UK still available – albeit after spending almost £1,000 on further flights and hotels.
Tracey, 26, told the Mirror her family are now desperate to get home after being let down by Ryanair, ITA and EasyJet – and criticised the airlines for their “outrageous” lack of support. When her Ryanair flight was cancelled on Friday night, she says she was given “no information” about what her family could do or whether she could pay for a hotel room.
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Nicole and her mother then decided to book a flight with EasyJet the next day and had booked a hotel in Milan with no guarantee that this would be covered by their travel insurance or the airline due to the “extraordinary circumstances” of the cancellation. But she said her experience with EasyJet on Saturday was the “worst” of the whole ordeal as they waited for seven hours at Milan airport only to be told that this flight was also cancelled. They were then told the next available flights were on Tuesday as all others were sold out.
Nicole said there were panicked scenes at the gates as people were told they would not be boarding the flight, even though the plane could be seen outside on the runway. Nicole told the Mirror: “As you can imagine, it was chaos – there was an old couple shouting, everyone was trying to ask questions but there was no information. They didn’t try to help us at the airport and told us to wait for email updates. Overall, there was very little support – it was really stressful.”
They then tried to fly with ITA Airways from Milan to Naples to get a connecting flight home, but were informed just hours before departure that this too had been cancelled. Fearing further disappointment, they have now booked another flight home for Sunday afternoon, meaning the pair will have to change in Copenhagen before reaching the UK.
In addition to the stress of being stranded far from home and having multiple plans to return, Nicole’s mother is a caregiver for an elderly family member, which adds to the need to get home as soon as possible. “It’s awful and so stressful,” she added. “We just want to go home now, even in our everyday lives.”
A widespread technical failure like Friday’s is considered an extraordinary event outside the control of airlines under current guidelines. This means passengers are not automatically entitled to the enhanced compensation packages available after other types of disruption. However, Nicole believes the airlines have “hidden” behind the IT failure to evade their responsibilities to families like hers, forcing them to arrange flights home and accommodation at their own expense.
Speaking of her “nightmarish” travel experience, she said: “They don’t answer and we’ve kept calling the phone lines trying to get through. It seems like they’re hiding behind this ‘extraordinary circumstances’ statement and don’t want to accept compensation claims. And they could have offered a lot more support. At the airport there were two members of staff at the EasyJet desk and there was a bit of a language barrier, they just kept telling us to leave and that the flights had been cancelled.
“We have spent hundreds of pounds on flights and connecting flights and now we are even afraid that today at the airport they will tell us the flight has been cancelled so we have to spend money on another night. It will ruin the holiday because we will remember it.”
The Manchester Evening News has contacted easyJet, ITA and Ryanair for comment.
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