Travellers looking forward to a relaxing week in the sun on one of Greece’s most popular islands have had their hopes smashed after severe weather conditions caused chaos. Over the past few days, many passengers attempting to return home to the UK have seen their flights delayed, cancelled or diverted at Zakynthos Airport due to stormy weather and flash floods.
The Greek airport, which serves holidaymakers heading to the party hotspot also known as Zante, was packed with travellers, with large crowds of people seen sitting on floors and huddled around departure boards in the travel hub. According to tracker FlightRadar24, more than a dozen flights were impacted heading to the North East, London, Birmingham, Manchester and across Europe. One affected holidaymaker, Amber Tate, 21, from Washington near Newcastle, was attempting to return home from Zante with her best friend Bethany Griffiths, but the pair had been left shaken by their ordeal at the airport.
Speaking to Chronicle Live on Saturday (September 27), Amber said: “We got our transfer to the airport at 6.20pm, and were met with huge crowds outside the airport, with many more arriving to drop people off soon after. We stayed within this crowd for three hours as flash floods of rain began to come.
“We were told nothing throughout the experience, having to speak to people in the crowd about where the toilets were, where we could get water, and if they knew if our flight was cancelled. People who had checked in were told to get their bags once again.
“My parents booked a hotel at around 9.20pm to ensure we had a place for the night as they assumed we wouldn’t be coming home. We waited longer as people got gradually more pushy and impatient during the storm, and at 10.17pm, I received an email stating the flight was cancelled, and we will now be taken to Manchester instead.
“After managing to get to a hotel, we have both cried endlessly and are terrified of flying now as we have lost all faith in travelling. This experience has not only drained us but depleted our confidence, and left us with some awful memories at the end of an amazing holiday.”
A holidaymaker from Newcastle shared: “When we arrived, we saw hundreds of people trying to seek shelter under the canopy outside the airport as it was raining heavily. We were left in the storm after getting off the coach and queued outside the terminal in the horrendous weather for four hours.
“People had young children and were trying to seek what little shelter they could. At around 10.30pm we managed to gain entry into the airport, but we were told that there would be no more flights.
Another, unnamed, traveller from County Durham said: “People are sleeping on the floor as it has been hard to find transport and accommodation, and we wouldn’t be able to come back in if we left the airport”.
In an update on Sunday, they added: “We are finally flying home, at 5.55am Tuesday, but not to Newcastle, to Manchester instead. We found a hotel at 7am this morning, but had to pay for both that and the taxi, and we have to pay for the taxi back to the airport at 3am tomorrow morning, so we are keeping the receipts.”
