Express & Star

Passengers heading to Birmingham Airport delayed for almost 20 hours in Italy

Passengers heading back to Birmingham Airport were stranded in Italy for nearly 20 hours.

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Tui desk in Birmingham Airport

People that were due to fly in and out of Verona Airport on Wednesday were faced with long waits, as both Tui and Jet2 flights were delayed.

A Jet2 flight from Verona back to Birmingham Airport was scheduled to land at 12.05pm on Wednesday, but was delayed over 10 hours and eventually landed back in the country around 10.30pm.

Another flight from Verona, this time a Tui flight was scheduled to leave Verona at 10.45am on Wednesday but after almost 20 hours of delays, the flight landed back at Birmingham this morning.

Bal Dehal, from Dudley, was a passenger due on the Tui flight but was stranded in Italy, delayed almost 20 hours.

She praised Tui for the handling of the chaos. She said: "Tui have been wonderful, we were flying from Verona Airport to Birmingham Airport, but most of the flights were either delayed or cancelled.

"Tui put us up in a hotel for the evening which was very helpful. There was around 200 people waiting at the airport, and they did their very best to accommodate us all while stuck here.

"We landed back home nearly 20 hours later, but it did take 2 hours for our luggage to come out."

It comes after chaos ensued at airports across the UK as passengers got away for the half-term holidays and bank holiday weekend.

Pictures of long queues have been shared on social media with some complaining about waiting hours to get through security, whilst others praised the airport staff for ensuring passengers were able to get through smoothly.

Unions Italian Federation of Transport Workers (FILT) and Italian Union of Transport Workers (UILT) said the strike was over pay disputes, non-payment of sick days, summer leave and a "lack of water and meals for the crew".

UILT said that if an agreement is not reached, "this will be only the first of a series of protest actions that will make the summer 'hot'".