Family ‘abandoned’ after fight cancelled due to rowdy passengers

A grandmother who was left with her family at Malaga airport after their late-night flight to Liverpool was cancelled due to disruptive passengers has said they felt “abandoned” by EasyJet.

Gaynor Loguello, 64, said the airline offered little help when the 23:25 flight on Saturday was cancelled because the cabin crew had been traumatised after dealing with unruly passengers on the inbound flight.

Ms Loguello said she saw two women who appeared to be drunk escorted from the plane before the cancellation resulted in chaos.

An EasyJet representative said the incident was outside of the airline’s control and it had “worked to minimise the impact of the disruption”.

Ms Loguello, from Greasby, had been travelling with family, including two grandchildren aged one and two.

She told BBC Radio Merseyside she had spent a “fabulous” week in the Spanish resort before her “horrendous” return journey with her family.

The family had been queuing to board the flight, which was due to leave at 23:25 local time, when Spanish police passed by the queue.

“We heard shouting and screaming from the plane and then we realised we weren’t going to be boarding,” she said.

The retired teaching assistant said she saw police remove the unruly passengers before the captain announced the crew were traumatised by the incident and the flight was cancelled.

“We were just told to use the app and book another flight, but none were available until Wednesday,” she said.

She said ground staff were unable to help and passengers were directed to the airline app and told to leave the airport.

“We understood how the crew must’ve felt and why the captain cancelled the flight but we were just abandoned,” Ms Loguello said.

She said the family of eight were not offered food or water and had to spend about £2,000 on credit cards for nearby hotel rooms, food, taxis and hire cars.

The family were finally able to secure a flight home on Monday after speaking to someone on the phone but had to fly to Gatwick and hire a car to drive to Liverpool airport, a journey which took 12 hours.

“It was horrendous, just awful,” Ms Loguello said.

“EasyJet have been dreadful. There was no interest in any of their customers.

“After a lovely week away with our family it just ruined the holiday.”

In a statement an Easyjet spokesman confirmed flight EZY3382 from Malaga to Liverpool “was unable to operate due to a disruptive passenger incident on the inbound flight”.

The representative said the crew has a responsibility in line with safety regulations to declare if it does not feel fit to operate.

Easyjet had provided options to rebook or receive a refund as well as hotel accommodation and meals, and offered to reimburse any customers who booked their own, he said.

“We always want to ensure our customers feel supported and so we are looking into these customers’ experience at the airport with our ground handling provider at Malaga,” the spokesman added.