Airports lay out BEDS for passengers as air traffic boss refuses to reveal cause of glitch that’s stranded thousands
AIRPORTS have laid out beds for stranded passengers after the air traffic boss refused to reveal the cause of the glitch that caused travel chaos.
Thousands of holidaymakers were hit by massive delays after a “technical issue” grounded flights heading to and from the UK on Monday.
And despite the issue being said to have been fixed on Monday afternoon, knock-on disruption continues to massively affected tourists.
The boss of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) confirmed that passengers can expect to be provided with food and drink as well as accommodation if delayed overnight.
But scores of people reported having to spend the night sleeping on the floor in terminals, with many more complaining about the lack of a proper meal.
Other travellers have said they feel abandoned, with some sleeping on cold airport floors surrounded by cockroaches.
And many furious holidaymakers face mounting costs to cover food and hotel rooms with no idea who is footing the bill.
Passenger Matthew Creed, 26, became stuck at Schiphol Amsterdam Airport yesterday after his flight with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines to Edinburgh was cancelled.
Matthew spent the night sleeping on a folding bed in the airport but later found out that this was all for nothing as KLM had booked him a hotel.
He claims he was not informed of this change, describing his unsettled night’s sleep as “not ideal”.
Matthew said: “They were helping people for a long amount of time, there were long queues, and there were only four or five agents trying to help people.
“Then they just kind of said we’re closing all of their desks and everybody needs to find their own accommodation or find out their own way to sort things out.
“We heard that there was a gate at the end of the airport where they were putting out pillows and blankets and things, so that’s where we had to sleep last night… which wasn’t ideal.”
At least 281 flights – including departures and arrivals – were cancelled yesterday at the UK’s six busiest airports.
And about 200,000 irate travellers were told their first available flights home could be at the end of next week.
It comes as NATS chief executive Martin Rolfe said he was “not going to rush” into saying what the cause of the failure was.
The air traffic control boss said he cannot reveal the cause of the glitch that caused travel misery, reports Sky News.
The hiccup left air traffic controllers no choice but to manually input flight plans, sparking hours-long delays.
Mr Rolfe told the channel: “You will understand we have very complex systems, handling something in the region of two million flights a year and the safety of those passengers is incredibly important to us.
“We are not going to rush into saying what the cause is until we absolutely fully understand.”
Reports have suggested the chaos may have been caused after a French airline misfiled its flight plan.
Without confirming these claims, Mr Rolfe said: “It could be a single flight plan… if it is a flight plan that has caused this, we know it is something in the flight data and we will get to the bottom of it and understand why.”
The air boss recently doubled his wages and his total pay has hit £1.3million.
It was the worst single day’s disruption to UK flying since the Icelandic volcano in 2010.
Passengers due to fly to Newcastle were seen bunking down on the floor of Palma airport overnight, with their flight already facing huge delays following severe weather problems.
Some holidaymakers were even sleeping in trolleys, with one passenger even using a towel to make a tent-like canopy between barriers
And one couple fear their dream Italian wedding could be off the cards after the flight chaos.
Frustrated tourists also took to social media to plead with airlines for help after being left in limbo.