{"id":33880,"date":"2022-06-05T23:50:07","date_gmt":"2022-06-05T23:50:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2022\/06\/05\/flight-cancellations-children-and-teachers-stranded-abroad-as-school-starts\/"},"modified":"2022-06-05T23:50:07","modified_gmt":"2022-06-05T23:50:07","slug":"flight-cancellations-children-and-teachers-stranded-abroad-as-school-starts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2022\/06\/05\/flight-cancellations-children-and-teachers-stranded-abroad-as-school-starts\/","title":{"rendered":"Flight cancellations: Children and teachers stranded abroad as school starts"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Ben, 17, should be home in time on Saturday to take his maths GCSE on Tuesday, but after a canceled flight and a frantic scrambling for train tickets, he’s just about to make it.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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A week of flight cancellations and delays has upended the plans of hundreds of students and some teachers who are on vacation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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As a result, many will miss the start of the new semester on Monday morning.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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And some, like Ben, face an anxious journey home.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“He wanted to be home for a few days to get his revision, to mentally prepare for it,” says his mother, Emma, \u200b\u200bwho didn’t want her last names used.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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After their Easyjet flight home from Paris was canceled, the earliest return flight Easyjet could offer was on Tuesday – too late. After spending hundreds of pounds on Eurostar tickets, they are now due to arrive back home in Stockport by 11.30pm on Monday evening, in time for Tuesday morning’s exam. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“Hopefully he makes it. But there’s no guarantee,” she says. And Easyjet was “impossible to contact and completely unhelpful,” she adds. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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There are reports of others being even less fortunate and missing GCSE or A-level exams altogether. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\n
    \n
  • What rights do I have if my flight is cancelled?<\/li>\n
  • Why are so many flights cancelled?<\/li>\n
  • Travel industry plea for foreign workers rejected<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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    Airlines are accused of taking on more bookings than they can handle with a reduced post-Covid workforce. But the airlines themselves say the government could also have done more to support the industry during the pandemic and speed up the process of security clearances for new employees now. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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    Hundreds of flights were canceled in the past week, and just as many families took their first vacation abroad since the pandemic. While some families never reached their destination or arrived late, others are now finding that their return flights are not operating.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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    It’s not just grad students – younger children are also missing out on the start of the new semester after airlines fail to take them home at the end of family vacations.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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    \u201cThe curriculum is packed and three days of school are missing, post-Covid is not good,\u201d says Milton Keynes father-of-four Joe Murray. “There’s no time to really catch up.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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    The family had booked return flights from Tenerife to get back in time for the anniversary celebrations but missed the entire four-day weekend after Wizz Air canceled their return trip twice.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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    “Wizz Air had to take us home since last Wednesday, canceled once while we were checked in and waiting at the gate, and the other four hours before the flight,” says Murray.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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    “It’s not good enough,” he adds. It’s even worse for a friend whose daughter misses high school on Tuesday, he says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    \n

    All holidaymakers who spoke to the BBC said they were shocked by the lack of communication and poor service from the airlines.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    \n

    Easyjet has apologized for the disruption and said it was doing everything it could to assist passengers. She has extended the opening hours of customer service from 07:00 to 23:00 and is helping those affected to find hotel accommodation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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    Wizz Air offered a “sincere apology” to the customers affected.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    \n

    Passengers would be offered alternative flights on Wizz Air, a full refund or 120% of flight credit, which should be processed within a week.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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    But the ongoing upheaval will affect children who have not even left their homes, and some school staff are also stranded and unable to return in time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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    Kelly and her husband are making their way back to Lincolnshire from Montenegro as quickly as possible. After their flight home on Sunday was cancelled, Easyjet offered them an alternative flight on Thursday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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    “We’re both teachers, so we have to go back,” says Kelly. So instead they took a bus to Dubrovnik, Croatia, where they waited more than four hours at the bus station for Easyjet to confirm their accommodation. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    \n

    They will take a four-hour bus ride to Split on Monday for a flight to Bristol on Tuesday. They catch a train from Bristol to Gatwick, collect their car and, with any luck, be back in the classroom by Wednesday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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    “We really feel let down by EasyJet,” says Kelly. “We wanted to get back to work as soon as possible and they didn’t help us at all.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    \n

    Pol, who teaches at a special needs school in west London, has had a similar experience trying to get home from Bodrum, Turkey.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    \n

    Students at his school find changes in their curriculum particularly upsetting, he says. So he doesn’t want to be gone any longer than he can avoid. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    \n

    After his and his partner’s flight was canceled on Saturday, they were told the first alternative flight was back on Wednesday, so they booked that first.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    \n

    But Pol found he could be back in school on Tuesday by catching a flight on a different airline and changing planes in Istanbul, so he spent \u00a3450 on a new ticket. He said he wasn’t sure Easyjet would refund it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    \n

    “People back home think, a few more days in the sun, it can’t be that bad being in the Mediterranean by the sea, but the point is we’re all tense and upset and to some extent disgusted, that in the 21st century we are dealing with a company that prides itself on being digital, but there is no information.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Ben, 17, should be home in time on Saturday to take his maths GCSE on Tuesday, but after a canceled flight and a frantic scrambling for train tickets, he’s just about to make it. 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