Stourport couple's savings wiped out after air traffic control fault

Libby is concerned about being left out of pocket after being forced to pay out for more travel and accomodation

A woman left stranded in Lanzarote by flight disruption says she is "beyond stressed".

Libby, 25, from Stourport, was due to fly back to Birmingham with her partner on Monday but found the flight was cancelled when she tried to check in.

She says the couple has spent thousands on a new flight and accommodation, with no refund yet received. The BBC has contacted Ryanair for a comment.

"It's been horrendous, we're beyond stressed," Libby said.

"We can't be £2,000 out of pocket. We're a young couple. It's just wiped out our savings," she says.

Thousands of passengers were stuck following the cancellation of more than 1,500 flights on Monday due to air traffic control issues.

Libby, who works as a teaching assistant, says she was told initially at the airport Ryanair would organise hotels, transfers and a new return flight the following day.

"We sat on the airport floor for about two to three hours until someone came out and said 'actually none of that's going to happen'," she said.

"Monday evening was dreadful. We stayed in a really bad hotel just because it was... cheap and we had to pay for it."

Libby says she eventually spoke to Ryanair on the phone but was passed to online booking agent On the Beach.

"Ok, it's not Ryanair's fault, but nobody's helped us. No one's been there for us, not even [on] the phone," she says.

Libby, 25 and Joe, 27, said the disruption to their holiday left them "beyond stressed"

The couple have now booked a return with providers Jet2 and Easyjet via Edinburgh on Saturday but Libby was concerned about the impact on self-employed partner Joe, 27, from Kidderminster.

"He's missing four days paid work and we can't afford to do that. He's got a mortgage to pay, he's got bills to pay. It's really having a knock-on effect," she said.

"We are definitely going to put a claim in for all this expense."

Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary previously said the air traffic control failure was "not acceptable" and had forced the company to cancel about 250 flights.

A spokesman for the firm said passengers were notified through email & SMS of their entitlements including the option to change flights (free of charge) or receive a full refund.

"As there was limited hotel availability in the area, passengers were advised to make their own arrangements and claim expenses back at Ryanair.com."

An On the Beach spokesperson said they had not yet received a refund from Ryanair for the couple but would contact the company and process it "as quickly as possible."

National Air Traffic Services previously apologised for the disruption and said it was caused by a flight plan its systems could not process.