Couple given 'less than €5' to survive 20 hour airport hell

Mariea Mohan, 39, and Graham Whaite, 41, were given just one €4.50 voucher and had to sleep on a “cold airport floor” after their Glasgow flight was cancelled.

The pair had been enjoying a dream trip to Disneyland Paris when the travel chaos hit as a technical fault in the UK's air traffic control (ATC) system on Monday left thousands of passengers stranded and flights delayed or scrapped.

Mariea Mohan was left in pain as she slept in the airport with a full leg brace due to a previous serious injury (Image: Sourced)

Mariea and Graham arrived at Charles de Gaulle Airport to fly home yesterday at 2pm but weren’t told it was cancelled until eight hours later.

They claim to have been left without a hotel and spent 20 hours in the airport with just enough compensation to buy “a sandwich but no water”.

It wasn’t until 10.30am this morning they finally boarded a flight back to Glasgow at last.

Mariea and Graham slept on the floor at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (Image: Sourced)

Mariea told the Glasgow Times: “We slept on the cold floor, or tried to sleep.

“I started to get ratty as I’ve a full leg brace on due to a serious injury and I wasn’t offered any form of support.

“The airport staff, not easyJet related, were so kind to me and let me use other airport lanes so I wasn’t standing.

“EasyJet wouldn’t take any calls [from us].

“I was more upset about not getting a room to sleep when 70% of the flight did.

“We got one voucher, €4.50 for the full 20 hours, which covered a sandwich and no water.

“The air staff on the plane said they had no room to put anyone up and they offered us snacks and juice, and truly felt sorry for us.

“It was an adventure.”

Mariea and Graham were stuck at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (Image: Sourced)

A spokesperson for easyJet said: "

“Due to the Air Traffic Control systems failure affecting UK airspace yesterday, some flights were unfortunately unable to operate.

"We have been doing everything we can to minimise the impact of the disruption, providing customers with information on their options to transfer their flight for free or receive a refund, securing hotel accommodation where possible and advising any customers who make their own accommodation or alternative travel arrangements that they will be reimbursed.

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

We previously reported how a number of flights to and from Glasgow Airport were axed as travel chaos continued for a second day.

The airport averages around 200 movements per day.

Passengers have been urged to check with their individual airlines for the latest flight updates.

The issue started on Monday after a technical glitch meant flight plans had to be input manually by controllers, causing more than a quarter of departures and arrivals to be axed.

Mariea and Graham had been having a blast at Disneyland before their airport drama (Image: Sourced)

The disruption could last until Friday as many aircraft and crews are out of position.

A notice to travellers on the Glasgow Airport website read: "National Air Traffic Services (NATS) are continuing to ensure a return to normal operations across the UK following yesterday’s technical issue.

"A small number of today’s services continue to be affected and we would remind passengers to check with their individual airlines for the latest flight updates."

Aviation analytics company Cirium said 790 departures and 785 arrivals were cancelled across all UK airports on Monday.

Transport Secretary Mark Harper said it was the worst incident of its kind in “nearly a decade” and announced an “independent review” will be carried out.