Northern Ireland holidaymakers finally on their way home from Rhodes after two day wait

Kirsty Creese had enjoyed a wonderful holiday in Rhodes with her husband Paul and children Kayla, 14, and Ollie, eight, but the trip through booked through TUI ended depressingly with the family among those who chose to sleep in the airport last night rather than the “dire” accommodation they’d experienced the previous evening.

The 34-year-old from Ballymena had been due to fly home at 9.55pm on Wednesday, but their flight was twice cancelled leading to a delay of nearly 46 hours until their promised flight time of 7.35pm this evening.

"The flight on Wednesday was cancelled due to technical difficulties and then last night when they announced that it was cancelled again our jaws just hit the floor.”

She commented: "Everyone is on edge, it’s horrendous. People have had very little sleep. We’re all hanging together. We’re trying to come together and keep the kids entertained but it’s just impossible.

"We have no clean clothes, we haven’t been able to shower. We left our toiletries in our hotel, we thought there was no point bringing them back home.”

Of the accommodation offered to those stranded in Rhodes, Kirsty said: “We’d paid to stay in a five-star hotel and we were sent the other night to a two-star.

“Our hotel was fairly dire, but we were lucky compared to other people who said they’d cockroaches and blood on the walls.

“We had to stay in the airport last night. We were better off there. I think pretty much everybody chose the airport.”

Kirsty sent the News Letter a picture of people boarding the Belfast-bound plane around an hour before it was due to take off tonight.

She said: “We can’t wait to get back to Ballymena.

"My husband is self-employed. He was meant to be working yesterday and today. He’s down two day’s wages. We’ve had to pay extra for the car to stay in and the dog to get looked after.

"It’s my Mum’s birthday today and we’ve missed that.

"We were supposed to be coming home chilled to enjoy the rest of the summer. This has totally knocked us.

"We’ve said that when we get home we won’t be leaving the country again. I couldn’t stand the thought of being abandoned in a foreign country again.”

She added: “I’ve told their reps, I will never ever book through TUI again.

"It might be third parties that have left them down but at the end of the day TUI are paying them, they have to take responsibility.”

A spokesperson for TUI said: “We know that this is not how anyone wants to end their holiday and would once again like to apologise for the inconvenience caused.”

They explained the Sunwing-operated aircraft was delayed due to a technical issue and the following day the technical issue needed further work so for the safety of customers and crew the “difficult decision” was made to extend the delay.

They said passengers who chose to stay at the airport instead of the overnight accommodation provided were given vouchers for meals and refreshments.

TUI said all customers are entitled to claim flight delay compensation.