'It's been a nightmare': Passengers face airport chaos after UK air traffic issue

Passengers left stranded by an hours-long air traffic control issue at UK airports have told the BBC of nightmare delays, chaotic scenes and waylaid holiday plans.

Hundreds of thousands of people are thought to have been hit with flight cancellations and delays throughout Tuesday and Wednesday after a technical problem caused the air traffic outage.

That included newlyweds Sasha and James, who told BBC Your Voice they spent three hours stranded in Wetherspoons at Gatwick after their flight to their honeymoon was cancelled.

Some also described sleeping on airport floors and chaos at baggage reclaim as thousands looked to reorganise their plans, while others have been stranded abroad while trying to get back to the UK.

Nats, the UK's air traffic control provider, has said flight operations are now stable but airlines have warned of continued knock-on disruption. Passengers have been advised to check their flight status before travelling to airports.

The boss of Nats Martin Rolfe apologised for the disruption and also met with Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander on Wednesday, who asked for a full investigation.

Most of the UK's main airports were hit by the problem including Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton and Glasgow.

Speaking to the BBC earlier on Wednesday, newly married couple Sasha and James Graham said they were boarding their flight from Gatwick to Funchal on the island of Madeira when they were "turned right back around".

Sasha said: "We spent three hours stranded in Wetherspoons, making the best of it.

"It's certainly not the experience we planned, but I think starting your marriage with a national disruption is certainly very memorable!"

They weren't able to reclaim their luggage but have since booked onto a new flight.

"It feels like we will spend our honeymoon at Gatwick," Sasha added.

Phil White also spoke of incredibly busy scenes in the airport's baggage reclaim hall, describing it as "carnage" as an influx of disrupted passengers tried to find their luggage.

"All the bags from every cancelled flight were sent to one reclaim carousel. So there were a thousand or so people trying to get close enough to get their cases," he said.

"The baggage hall was the worst and they're very lucky that there wasn't any sort of incident as tempers frayed and the concourse was getting hotter."

Elsewhere, people spoke of spending the night on the floors of airports and hotels across the globe when flights back into the UK were cancelled.

Sukie Perera, from Cardiff, describing her experience of being stuck in Turkey said "it has been a nightmare" and communication at the airport was poor.

She won't be able to fly home until Thursday but joked that at least "the view is beautiful".

Paul Willows, currently in Rhodes, Greece, with his family said they had to sleep on the floor of a hotel's conference room on Tuesday night.

He said: "They stripped all the cushions off the sunbeds and laid them in the conference room. I dare say there were about 80 of us on the floor."

Despite it having "not been a comfortable night at all", Paul said there was a "good element of pulling together" from those impacted.

Alan Jones and Kelly Fewery also said their family was "absolutely exhausted" after sleeping on the floor of Dalaman Airport in Turkey without blankets or pillows.

More than 340 flights were cancelled on Wednesday, according to aviation analytics company Cirium.

Airlines are still obliged to get passengers to their destinations - even if that is via another carrier - when their flight is cancelled, or give a refund.

Those delayed may have the right to food, or a hotel stay, depending on the length of the wait. But no extra compensation payments should be expected as the air traffic control issue was not the fault of any airline.

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