Stranded holiday-makers tell of Cyprus airport ordeal

Hundreds of exhausted holidaymakers arrived at Dublin airport today after they were stranded in Cyprus for more than 36 hours.

They had been due to leave the Mediterranean 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.

“The whole problem was they wouldn’t let us out of the airport and they wouldn’t give us any information, and there was no plane. There was nearly a riot in the airport yesterday and one of the women collapsed,” she said.

Nicola Kelly, 15, from Belfast, was holidaying with her aunt Maureen Kelly when their return flight to Dublin was delayed.

“It was awful. I hated it,” she said.

Her mother Lisa Duffy said she had only received one call and one text to say Nicola was okay.

“We have been trying to ring Larnaca the whole day but there’s been absolutely nothing from yesterday,” she said as she waited for her daughter in the arrival hall.

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.

Many of the passengers and families complained there had been little information and had had to rely on news bulletins to find out what was going on.

The Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed last night that 95 passengers would be flown home on a 6pm flight which would be stopping over in London’s Gatwick airport while a further 266 would be flown directly to Dublin.

Both flights finally landed in Dublin at around 12.30am today, to the obvious relief of the passengers and their families waiting for them.

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 yesterday 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.

Beverly Lipton, 41, from Newtownards, complained about the lack of service and information received from holiday reps and airline staff.

“They gave us food vouchers and beverages but by the time they decided to give us blankets it was too late because we were frozen. It was terrible. We didn’t know whether we were coming or going,” she said.

She said they had to sleep on metal chairs and wooden tables and that staff and reps were few and far between.

“We didn’t see anybody or see the reps once we were in the departure lounge and we weren’t allowed back out again,” she said.