IT outage: Tui flight cancellations trap passengers for days

Ms Hill said there was about 200 people waiting in the terminal, with lots of screaming children.

She said the airport shops closed at 19:00 and while passengers were given euros to spend, the shop workers were “trying to shoo people out, going ‘no we’re closed, you can’t spend that'”.

“I’m gluten intolerant, my partner had to rush around to find anything.”

Ms Hill was able to contact a Tui agent on the app.

“Everybody else had been ghosted. This [agent] was putting his neck out on the line to give us information that he wasn’t sure he was allowed to give,” she said.

It was through this messaging she discovered the plane was further delayed until 05:45.

The 38-year-old said at about 23:00 “someone came over and said the flight’s been cancelled” and everyone had to collect their luggage.

They were told they would be taken to a hotel.

“We all had an email saying it’s been cancelled due to technical issues with the aircraft, then the rep we spoke to said it was due to staffing issues, and then the following email said ‘it was due to the IT outage’,” she said.

The group had to wait for several buses as they could only transport 60 people at a time, Ms Hill said.

They then waited for two days in a hotel with no updates on when they could fly.

She said the hotel was “just manic”.