Hundreds of exhausted holidaymakers arrived at Dublin airport early Tuesday after they were stranded in Cyprus for more than 36 hours, according to a report on IrelandOn-Line.
They had been due to leave the island at 7am on Sunday but were left stranded after their Helios Airways flight failed to take off from Pathos Airport.
The plane was cancelled without any warning a week after one of the airline’s Boeing 737 planes crashed in Greece, killing all 121 passengers and crew on board.
The Irish holidaymakers were transferred to a hotel and then on to Larnaca Airport where they were left waiting for a flight with little information provided to them, they said.
Arriving home 70-year-old Marie Tucker who had been holidaying with her husband Norman, 75, vowed she would never return to the island.
She said they had been in the airport from 4.30am on Sunday morning.
Sharon Grant, 21, from Kilkenny, who was holidaying with her friend, said stranded passengers had got only blankets and information after a lot of protest.
“We had no change of clothes, no money and nowhere to sleep,” she said.
One mother who had flown home a day ahead of her family, was in tears as she was reunited with her five children.
She said the situation in which people had not been given blankets until early Monday morning, had had to sleep on metal chairs and had been provided with inadequate food vochers, was a disgrace.
Many of the holidaymakers vowed never to return to Cyprus, a popular holiday destination, or to fly with Helios again.
Delayed passengers urged to seek compensation
Ireland’s Director of Consumer Affairs Carmel Foley has urged passengers affected by delays on Helios Airways flights from Cyprus to seek compensation under new EU legislation.
She says the affected passengers are entitled to claim compensation from both the airline and the aviation regulator.
The 350 Irish passengers who were stranded in Larnaca Airport in Cyprus have now arrived back in Dublin. They had been due to fly out of Larnaca on Sunday morning, but their two scheduled flights were cancelled.
The airline eventually chartered two jets to accommodate the delayed passengers, and they arrived back in Dublin just after Monday midnight.
