Stranded Gatwick passengers tell of plane cancellation woes

Rosie Garthwaite said a lot of people were struggling to find chairs at Gatwick

Passengers flying home to Gatwick have described being stuck at airports around Europe with little information about when they will reach their destination.

One holidaymaker said he cannot fly home until Friday and has only been provided with a room for one night.

Britain's National Air Traffic Services say a "technical issue" has now been "identified and remedied".

Gatwick Airport said it was "seeing multiple delays and cancellations".

Laurence Blight, from Surrey, was due to fly home from Benidorm to Gatwick after a short bank holiday weekend break with his two friends Sarah and Jessica.

He was originally told his Easyjet flight - due to fly back at midnight on Monday - was delayed by six hours before being cancelled.

Lawrence Blight with friends Jessica (left) and Sarah, who will now miss her best friend's wedding

The friends' replacement flight has been scheduled for Friday and will take eight and a half hours due to a stop-over in Geneva.

Mr Blight said: "I've cried. When you're stranded in a foreign country with nowhere to sleep and hardly any money because you're thinking you'll be home that night, it's a bit scary."

The three friends said they are struggling to find accommodation and Sarah and Jessica have children at home who they have had to organise childcare for.

Easyjet said it was "providing customers on cancelled flights with the option to transfer their flight free of charge or receive a refund".

"The safety and wellbeing of our customers and crew is our highest priority and while these circumstances are outside of our control, we would like to apologise for the inconvenience caused and to reassure customers that we are doing everything possible," a statement said.

Gio Paris is stuck in Milan after his flight, due to leave on Monday afternoon, was delayed until 03:00 BST on Tuesday morning, before eventually being cancelled.

He said he was receiving mixed messages, with airport information boards showing the flight had been cancelled while the app said it was delayed.

Airport boards are not corresponding with information on airline apps, said Mr Paris

He said the group had "decided to rent a car and drive to Paris", where they will get a Eurostar to London.

BBC journalist Rosie Garthwaite has been waiting at Gatwick since Monday morning to fly out to Marseille for a 70th birthday party.

"We had a captain from Easyjet come on the tannoy and tell us 'we just don't know anything, but it's air traffic control so we can't mess about,'" Ms Garthwaite said.

She said a lot of people are now being escorted out of the airport after their flights were cancelled and information desks had queues of around 100 people.