An 81-year-old man travelling alone arrived back in Aberdeen after a horrific 40-hour journey with multiple delays.
Frederick Garden was due to fly to Glasgow with Jet2 after visiting his daughter and family in Cyprus.
On the way to Cyprus, he flew with his family, which was the first time he had travelled since Covid.
After enjoying two weeks on the island he was to fly back to Glasgow alone on Wednesday May 4.
According to his daughter Julie Freeland he was already quite stressed about the journey, but they managed to reassure him.
He arrived at Larnaca Airport to discover his flight to Glasgow, due to leave at 10.30pm, was delayed because it was diverted to Budapest following a medical emergency.
Mrs Freeland tracked the flight landing in Larnaca and then saw it leaving around 1.30am, believing her dad was on the way home.
However, he texted her at 3am to say his flight had been cancelled.
Jet2 has blamed this on the diversion resulting in the cabin crew “running out of operating hours”.
‘There were people lying on the floor’
After sitting on the plane for about three hours, the crew brought the passengers back to the departure lounge and considered booking a hotel for everyone.
This did not happen and the passengers were left waiting in the lounge for the next flight.
Mr Garden, from Mastrick, said there was no communication between staff and those waiting.
“The thing was a complete fiasco,” he said. “The lack of information was the worst thing.
“There were people just lying about on the floor, and there was a little baby – it was just diabolical.”
Passengers were given a voucher for €20, however, according to the pensioner, it didn’t go very far in the airport.
The exhausted passenger was then flown to Manchester Airport at 3.30pm on Thursday by Tui and then endured a journey to Glasgow by coach.
They got into Glasgow at 11.30pm, and he had to travel to the city centre for a hotel because there were no more buses back to Aberdeen.
Mr Garden eventually got back home in Aberdeen around 11am on Friday.
‘Absolutely disgusting’
Mrs Freeland explained he was meant to get into Glasgow at 1.30am on Thursday May 5.
They had already booked a hotel and a bus to Aberdeen for the grandfather, but he missed his reservations and needed to book them again.
Mr Garden, who is hard of hearing, was left exhausted by the journey, but according to his daughter felt better after getting home and getting a good sleep.
Now, the family has contacted Jet2 but the airline say they will not offer any compensation and they should claim through their insurance.
Mrs Freeland described the situation as “awful” and thinks it’s “absolutely disgusting” they can treat an elderly man travelling alone like that.
‘Our teams worked extremely hard’
A Jet2 spokesman confirmed the flight from Larnaca to Glasgow was diverted to Budapest due to a passenger needing “urgent medical attention”.
He said: “The unforeseen delay caused by this divert resulted in our cabin crew running out of operating hours, meaning that the inbound flight could not return as scheduled from Larnaca to Glasgow.
“We communicated this to our customers as soon as possible.
“Our teams worked extremely hard to provide a number of options for customers, including cancelling with a full refund or flying with an alternative carrier.
“This particular customer chose to fly back to the UK with an alternative carrier, however, this flight was unfortunately delayed.
“We would of course like to apologise for any inconvenience caused by these extraordinary circumstances, and we will be happy to discuss this further with the customer.”
