Brits are facing summer holiday chaos with easyJet cancelling a spate of flights to and from the UK at short notice while many others have been delayed, with some passengers claiming to be stranded abroad.

On the busiest day of the year for air traffic in Europe, thousands of passengers are complaining of chaos at airports including Manchester and Gatwick where people have only learnt that their flights have been cancelled shortly before take-off.

EasyJet customers have contacted the Mirror in their droves to share their frustration at how the move by the budget airline has impacted them. These include people returning to the UK, such as 70-year-old Carole Fuller, a solo traveller, who has been stranded in Bodrum, Turkey, having had her flight to Edinburgh scrapped at short notice.

Ann Thomas and her husband are stuck at Malaga Airport as their flight to Manchester Airport was axed - again due to "air traffic control problems". Many flights were cancelled on Thursday, including at least 12 by easyJet that were going to and from Liverpool John Lennon airport.

An easyJet spokesperson told The Mirror: "Due to the impact of air traffic control restrictions in place across Europe for much of yesterday, like all airlines operating across European airspace, some of our flights were unable to operate with some knock-on impact on today’s operation.

“We have been doing everything possible to minimise the impact for our customers, providing hotel accommodation and meals as well as a refund or a transfer to an alternative flight and are advising customers they will be reimbursed for expenses should they need to make their own arrangements.

“The safety and wellbeing of our customers is our highest priority and while this is outside of our control, we are very sorry for the inconvenience caused.”

Tim Hanlon

Couple face extortionate prices for alternative flights after easyJet cancellation

A woman has told how her flight from Malaga to Manchester was cancelled and an alternative by Jet2 shot up to £461.

Anne Thomas, from Lytham St Annes, said: "My husband and I are currently in Malaga. We should have returned home this evening to Manchester. We were informed of a delay to the flight this afternoon due to air traffic control problems. At about 6pm we were told the flight was cancelled.

"My husband has tried to book an alternative flight tomorrow evening on an app called My Trip who could us a flight with Jet2. At first the price was £259 for two persons. Now we have been informed that the price has increased to £461 each. How can this be!! Now told payment didn’t go through and now longer available. We have managed to rebook into the hotel we have been staying in.

"Our original flight was with Easy Jet to Manchester last night. They offered us a change of flight but when we got to the end of the rebooking procedure it was no longer available as was the Jet 2 flight that we tried to book.

"Eventually my husband located a flight to Copenhagen with a connecting flight to Manchester late last night which left Malaga at 7am this morning where we now are awaiting our connection. Also we were in the fortunate position to be able to stay at the hotel we had stayed for our trip to Malaga but many people wouldn’t have had this option. We should hopefully be home in England later this afternoon.

Tim Hanlon

Bride ends up in Luton after easyJet flight from Edinburgh to Italy cancelled

A bride-to-be from Dundee planning to get married in Italy ended up in Luton after her flight was cancelled.

Sarah Machete claims she was told by easyJet that her flight from Edinburgh to Napoli at 6am was cancelled as she was heading to the airport and she could fly on another plane on Saturday.

Instead she arranged to fly to Luton, stay in a hotel and then jet out to Napoli at 6.15am. She wrote on X: “Now have to take a flight tonight to Luton and get the 6am flight to Naples tomorrow morning. A whole 24hrs of my trip lost, an entire night of the Villa wasted and lots of stress at a time we don’t need it due to the incompetence of @easyJet. No confidence it won’t happen again!”

Tim Hanlon

Woman who booked alternative flight claims easyJet will not pay

A woman who booked an alternative flight to Liverpool after her easyJet plane from Larnaca was cancelled claims she will not be reimbursed.

Maria Sparkes said her flight was cancelled on Thursday night and she flew back home on a Tui plane after alleging she was told by an easyJet representative to keep her receipts. Later she says she was told she could not make a claim for the cost.

"We were supposed to fly from Larnaca to liverpool with easyJet tonight at 1015. This morning we got a text saying flight was delayed by three hours. Bus took us to airport and when we got there received messages that it was cancelled and then another message saying we were going to fly on Sunday to Birmingham," she told The Mirror.

"The rep told us to make our own arrangements and save receipts to claim back. I booked myself and husband a Tui flight for the early hours to East Midlands and then Uber from East Midlands to Liverpool as this is where our car is. Hours later we were told we had been booked into a hotel in Larnaca when i eventually got through to easyJet they said we couldn’t claim and had been misinformed (...) Some people have paid £1500 for alternative flights. Absolutely awful."

Tim Hanlon

Passenger tells of losing two days of holiday after easyJet cancellation

A passenger heading from Liverpool to Faro in Portugal has told how her easyJet flight was cancelled and they were booked on another two days later.

"My easyJet flight from Liverpool to Faro on Tuesday 25th June at 6am was cancelled via email at 9.30pm on Monday evening, we were leaving for the airport at 2am," Lisa Donoghue told The Mirror.

"I happened to see the email by chance at 10.30pm, we did not receive a text or phone call. They had already rebooked us on a flight 2 days later at 7pm, we would have arrived at the resort at midnight, our previous flight got us there for 9am, so we would have lost 2 days of a 5 day holiday.

"EasyJet customer services were so unhelpful, I called to ask if they could extend our holiday by two days if we did travel on the alternative flight, I was told no and that we would have to do that ourselves and rebook. I asked for a refund, they said they would transfer me to another department, the line went dead twice.

"The customer service advisor was rude and unhelpful. I had paid for extra legroom (£107) and was told that could not be refunded and I would have to request this through compensation. We still don't know why the flight was cancelled and we are waiting to see if we are compensated."

Tim Hanlon

EasyJet statement in full on travel chaos

EasyJet has responded to travel chaos stating that air traffic control restrictions led to cancellations.

A spokesperson for the airline told The Mirror: “Due to the impact of air traffic control restrictions in place across Europe for much of yesterday, like all airlines operating across European airspace, some of our flights were unable to operate with some knock on impact on today’s operation.

“We have been doing everything possible to minimise the impact for our customers, providing hotel accommodation and meals as well as a refund or a transfer to an alternative flight and are advising customers they will be reimbursed for expenses should they need to make their own arrangements.

“The safety and wellbeing of our customers is our highest priority and while this is outside of our control, we are very sorry for the inconvenience caused.”

Tim Hanlon

EasyJet chaos sees Brits in airport 'cage' with no water for hours as passengers collapse

A family with a three-year-old child claimed they were kept in a “cage” without food or water during a 17-hour delay on an easyJet flight from Cyprus.

Chris Lewis told The Mirror that the plane should have left at 10pm on Wednesday from Paphos but didn’t take off until 3.15pm. It comes during summer holiday chaos for many travellers as easyJet cancelled a spate of flights at short notice.

“We have a three-year-old and (this is) one of the worst experiences I have ever had travelling,” said Chris. “We arrived at the airport to be told that there was a two-hour delay. We were then told at 9.45 we were boarding and we were rushed through the airport and put into what can only be described as a cage.”

He continued: “We were left in this cage for nearly two hours with no water and no facilities. There was a lady who collapsed and lots of people really struggling and stressed. We watched as all the people with special assistance were loaded onto the plane only to be taken off 10 minutes later.”

Chris went on to claim that they were then told by the pilot at 11.40pm that thunderstorms had caused delays and now the crew were “over hours” so the flight was cancelled. “We were then released from our cage and had to go through passport control and collect our luggage,” said Chris. “We were travelling with our three-year-old so you can imagine how this was going.”