Heartbreak as Bewdley family's holiday scrapped amid flight chaos

Matt Winsper and his family planned to spend a week on Gran Canaria

A family says it has had to scrap a much-awaited holiday after more than a quarter of UK flights were cancelled.

A technical issue at air traffic control has caused widespread travel disruption with thousands of passengers stuck on planes and at airports on Monday.

Matt Winsper, from Bewdley, said the cancellation of the family's flight ruined their £2,500 trip to Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands.

EasyJet has apologised to customers.

In the early hours of Monday morning, Mr Winsper had set off from Worcestershire to Bristol airport with his family.

'Kids were inconsolable'

Despite a five-hour wait, he said he remained hopeful their holiday to the Spanish island would go ahead.

"As we watched the [departures] board, flights one by one were getting cancelled but ours stayed live so we were excited and the kids were in the holiday spirit," he said.

"By the middle of the evening, the inevitable happened and our flight was cancelled too. There was a huge audible sigh around the departure lounge.

"It was heart-breaking seeing lots of young families and little kids who were inconsolable and were all around us crying."

He said he tried to book an alternative flight while still in the airport to salvage the family holiday but found there were none available.

The family has applied for a refund for the week-long trip.

Mr Winsper and his family were unable to find alternative flights so had to abandon the holiday

Transport Secretary Mark Harper said the disruption would last for several days.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak added passengers have rights with regards to accommodation and alternative flights and Mr Harper would be making sure airlines "honour those obligations".

"While the majority of our flying programme is operating as planned today, the knock-on impact of yesterday's UK ATC systems failure means that some flights this morning were unfortunately unable to operate," said EasyJet, the airline Mr Winsper was booked to travel with.

"We notified customers in advance, providing them with options to transfer their flight for free or receive a refund to help them rearrange their plans.

"While this is outside of our control, we apologise for the difficulty this has caused for our customers and we remain focused on doing all possible to assist and repatriate them as soon as possible at this very busy time of year."

Meanwhile, some flights that were cancelled at Birmingham Airport on Monday have been rescheduled, a spokesperson said.

"With some aircraft currently in the wrong locations, it may take some days for all the effects of Monday's air traffic system failure to wash out," they added.

"Customers are advised to monitor the latest information from their airlines."