Passengers on UK flight stranded with young kids at Palma airport in 20-hour hell

A passenger has told of a "horrendous" 20-hour wait for a Jet2 flight home to the UK where families were left without baby food.

The flight from Palma, Majorca, to Belfast International Airport was scheduled to leave on Monday morning at 11.35am and passengers were allegedly sent to the gate to board only be told their flight was delayed by a few hours. Soon after, it was delayed by 12 hours, and was supposed to take off shortly before midnight. However, shortly after this flight was due to leave, passengers were informed it wasn't happening.

The airline sorted travellers with hotels for the night, but passengers were left angry that this is claimed to have taken around three hours, meaning those due to travel had been waiting in the airport for 20 hours.

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Speaking toBelfast Live, a woman due to be on the flight, who wished to remain anonymous, said it has been a "horrendous" experience. She said: "We have always thought Jet2 were an excellent company, but the communication has just been awful.

"I have three young children, and there were a lot of other children getting on that flight. They had a few nappies, but there was no ready-made milk left for any of the babies, and they had power but couldn't provide us with boiling water. When we went to get that, you were charged for it in the cafes.

"They sent out information to the passengers before their own staff to tell us the flight was delayed by 12 hours. The staff would give us no information, they said the window wiper was broken on the plane, and apparently the wrong replacement part was sent.

"I was on the 24/7 helpline constantly, and they couldn't give us any information. They kept telling us our flight was going to go at 12.20am. Between 12.30am and 1am, they told us the flight wasn't happening."

In the early hours of Tuesday morning, the mum said they had to wait for quite a while before finding out where they would stay for the night. She explained: "We all had to go down and get our luggage then we stood for around three hours while they tried to get us hotels. We were getting our hotels at around 4am, after having been in the airport from about 8am the day before.

"I asked if there would be a cot in the hotel for my baby and they said there would be. I Googled the place before we left and it was adults only - they were sending me there with my three young children. They booked us in to a different hotel, and didn't tell the driver we were going to this new hotel. The situation has been horrendous."

Finally the passengers on the plane were due back in Belfast on Tuesday evening with a flight leaving a 5.35pm.

A spokesperson for Jet2 said yesterday: “Flight LS362 from Palma to Belfast International has been delayed due to operational reasons. Despite our best efforts to get customers back to the UK yesterday, the flight had to night stop at Palma Airport and our teams have been working very hard to look after everyone including arranging hotel accommodation and refreshments.

"We have continued to communicate with customers throughout and will be flying customers back to Belfast today. We understand the inconvenience that this may have caused, and we would like to apologise to customers affected by this unforeseen delay."