Skipton family stranded in France by air traffic control chaos

Social worker Joanne Dollard, pictured with children Emily and Arthur, will miss work due to the air traffic disruption

A family from North Yorkshire has been left stranded in France until Sunday after UK air traffic control systems were hit by technical problems.

Rory and Joanne Dollard, both 40, and their two children had been due to fly back from their holiday on Monday.

But after waiting for five hours at Bergerac Dordogne Perigord Airport, the family, from Skipton, was told their Ryanair flight could not take off.

Mr Dollard criticised "a lack of information" for disrupted passengers.

He said they were told all flights were full for the next six days.

Thousands of passengers have faced cancellations and delays after a systems failure plunged UK air traffic control into chaos on Bank Holiday Monday.

People were stuck in the UK and abroad after National Air Traffic Services limited the number of planes landing.

All airlines flying into and out of the country were affected and some have warned the knock-on disruption could last for days.

Passengers queue for information at Bergerac Dordogne Perigord Airport

Mr Dollard, his wife and their children Emily, 10, and Arthur, 8, have been told the next flight they can board is on Sunday 3 September from a different airport 125 miles (200km) away.

"Six days, it's remarkable really," said Mr Dollard, a cricket journalist.

"I've been to the airport again today and the flights had restarted for Ryanair, but they were all full already so it wasn't a case that we could book on to the next flight.

"We're having to wait for the next available route, which is a couple of hours' drive away at a different airport, Limoges, on Sunday afternoon."

The family is staying with friends until their flight.

Mr Dollard said he and his wife, a social worker, would be missing "important" work.

He criticised "a lack of information" for disrupted passengers, telling PA Media: "We were told we would hear from somebody the following morning and we still haven't heard from anyone and, frankly, we're not expecting at this stage to hear from anyone at all.

"It feels like the weight of people affected has overloaded the system."

Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary said on Tuesday the airline was "doing everything we possible can to minimise the disruption for our passengers and their families".

He said the air traffic control failure was "not acceptable".

National Air Traffic Services has said a flight plan which its systems could not process was behind Monday's technical problem.