Global IT outage leaves holidaymakers stranded

Chris Brown spoke to the BBC from his hotel room in Madeira

A group of holidaymakers who have been stranded abroad following the global IT systems crash say they feel anxious and upset.

Chris Brown, one of those stranded said about 150 people who were due to fly to Birmingham with Tui from Madeira on Friday were still on the Portuguese island.

Mr Brown, from Tipton, West Midlands, is now booked on a flight for Tuesday, but said the uncertainty had been "stressful", especially for travellers running out of their medication.

Tui said it would not comment on specific customers or flights but apologised to customers affected by the IT outage.

More than 3,300 flights were cancelled globally after a faulty software update was deployed by cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike.

Mr Brown said there had been uncertainty about what day the group in Madeira would be flying home.

'Stressful and anxious people'

"It's just a worrying time for a lot of people and we are all talking as a group and everyone has got different stories. It's not good," he said.

Although Tui was funding accommodation and people were "fed and watered, the passengers still had to buy any additional items they needed in Madeira", Mr Brown added .

"Yes the sun's out and it's nice weather and stuff but [there's] lots of stressful and anxious people and we do want to get back to the UK," he said.

Mr Brown said they had been due to fly out about 23:30 BST on Friday but saw no information against their flight on the departure board and "eventually" were told it was cancelled and were put up in a hotel about 01:00 BST.

In relation to some flights cancelled from Birmingham Airport, Tui said its overall service level was "heavily impacted" following the global IT outage and it was "deeply sorry" for the inconvenience caused to customers.

A TUI UK & Ireland spokesperson thanked customer for their "understanding and continued patience" and recognised "how frustrating" delays and cancellations had been.

"We would like to apologise to our customers who were impacted," they said. "If they are currently overseas our TUI team will look after them and flights home [will be] provided."

The spokesperson added customers would continue to be updated and contacted 24 hours before departure if return flight times changed.

TUI also told the BBC customers due to travel on a cancelled flight could amend their holiday without any fee and get vouchers off the cost of future holidays.

Those who no longer wish to travel would receive a full refund, the company added.