EasyJet cancellation leaves wedding guests stranded

A bride says she fears some of her wedding guests will miss the ceremony after their flight to Spain was cancelled.

Florence Broderick said she was disappointed after EasyJet cancelled her Somerset family's flight to Madrid.

She said some of them will now miss her "lifetime event", a wedding that has already been postponed for three years.

EasyJet said its customer service hours have been extended and apologised for the cancellation.

The airline company cancelled dozens of flights "due to the ongoing challenging operating environment".

"We are very sorry and fully understand the disruption this will have caused for our customers," the airline said, adding it was doing everything possible to get passengers to their destinations.

Ms Broderick said she had been "waiting in anticipation all week" hoping her family could fly out from Bristol Airport to attend her wedding in Madrid on Saturday.

"We were just praying that it wouldn't be cancelled, but tonight the big flight has been cancelled," she said.

"Everyone is scrambling to get to London and book a flight, but the prices are through the roof."

She added: "To potentially not make a lifetime event, it sucks.

"If you don't have as many staff, surely commercially, this should be planned for?"

Megan Bradley and 15 of her friends were unable to fly back to Bristol Airport from Faro in Portugal following a hen do.

Ms Bradley, who lives near Wells, said they were stuck at the airport for hours on Monday evening before being told their flight had been cancelled.

"It was an awful experience, we felt trapped," She said.

"We were told if our flight did go, it had been downgraded to a smaller plane. Only two of us would be able to get on the next flight."

She said a woman in her group who was pregnant and another who needed to get home for their child were "luckily" picked at random.

"Eventually they left. We all let out a cheer and had a cry."

She said they were were given leaflets and told they could not get a refund if they booked flights with another airline.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has said the aviation industry cut too many jobs during the coronavirus pandemic and warned it must not oversell flights.

In response, travel bosses have asked for the Government to ease visa restrictions to make it possible to recruit staff lost since Brexit.

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