EasyJet slammed as Gatwick flight cancellation chaos hits Inverness Airport passengers
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An Inverness man has criticised the airline EasyJet after becoming one of an estimated 180,000 passengers hit by sudden flight cancellations.
Jack Spittal (22) carefully planned a holiday break in southern France weeks in advance.
Flights for next month were booked from Inverness to London Gatwick, connecting to Nice, with a return journey taking the reverse route on August 31.
To his dismay on Monday this week, an email from EasyJet dropped informing him that the Gatwick to Inverness homeward leg flight was now cancelled.
The alternative offered for no extra cost would have left Mr Spittal with a lengthy airport wait, forcing him to fork out £50 more to rearrange the Nice to Gatwick leg of his journey, on top of the £415.45 already paid.
As well as incurring the extra fee, the digital advertising specialist from Culloden is annoyed that the company offered no explanation for the cancellation in their email.
The personal blow amounts to a drop in the ocean compared to the scale of chaos caused by EasyJet’s decision to ground a staggering 1700 flights to and from Gatwick in July, August and September.
The budget firm blames “unprecedented” air-traffic control delays at the London international hub for the decision.
Mr Spittal, who will journey solo to France to meet family and friends, said: “The email dropped a couple of days ago, but there wasn’t any explanation which I find quite disappointing.
“I actually booked it on June 11. You always know there can be complications with flights occasionally, but much closer to departure. You really don’t expect a cancellation so far in advance.
“They let you change the flight for free since it has been cancelled, or for a voucher, but the next available flight would have meant I was stuck in the airport for six hours.
“I had to pay £50 to change my flight from Nice to London so that I could get the earlier flight from London to Inverness.
“It is very frustrating given that it is no fault of my own. I’m annoyed.
“I’d heard all the stuff about EasyJet cancelling flights, but it is a bit cheeky when they already make you pay so much for extras like luggage.
“I’d imagine a lot of people in the Highlands have been affected because the London flights are always quite busy.
“I’d definitely think twice before booking with them again.”
EasyJet has blamed constrained airspace over Europe and ongoing air traffic control difficulties for causing regular cancellations.
Cancellations roughly represented the equivalent of one day's worth of flights, with about 90,000 journeys still operated over the period.
A spokeswoman said the whole airline industry was encountering "challenging conditions” this summer with the closure of Ukrainian airspace due to Russia's invasion causing congestion in the skies.
Planned strikes by air traffic controllers in Europe could also impact, she said.
The spokeswoman said: “We are currently operating up to around 1,800 flights and carrying around 250,000 customers per day and, like all airlines, we review our flights on an ongoing basis.
“The whole industry is seeing challenging conditions this summer.
“We have therefore made some pre-emptive adjustments to our programme, consolidating a small number of flights at Gatwick, where we have multiple daily frequencies, in order to help mitigate these external challenges on the day of travel for our customers.
“Customers whose flights are affected are being informed, with 95 per cent of customers being rebooked onto an alternative flight and all customers provided with the option to rebook or receive a refund.
“We are sorry for any inconvenience that this may have caused.”
