Weary travellers make it back to Birmingham Airport

Apr 23 2010 by William Oliphant, Birmingham Mail

TRAVELLERS were left counting the cost as flight schedules returned to something like normality at Birmingham International Airport.

Arriving back yesterday, uninsured Mo Muhsen, 37, from Balsall Heath, said his four-day break to Benidorm had cost him around £2,000 after his return home was delayed from Saturday.

“I’ve had to take unpaid time off work because I haven’t been able to get back, we were supposed to be back on Saturday. The last few days weren’t anything like a holiday.

“The mood in the hotel was terrible. Everyone was miserable.”

Jade Samuels, 24, who was travelling with him, added: “No-one was in the holiday mood because of all the travel problems.”

Mother and daughter Pauline and Gemma Hegarty, from Shirley, who had been on a week-long break to Ireland with Gemma’s son Shea, aged two, said they ended up there for nearly two weeks.

“We had booked a ferry already when we found out we were going to be able to get back by air,” said Gemma.

“We’ll lose that money because we didn’t think to get insurance to go to Ireland.”

Birmingham couple Sarbjit Kaur and Jatinder Singh Mehmi had to spend 12 hours in an airport in Amritsar.

“When we got there we were left waiting for hours. No-one had any information.”

But it wasn’t all bad news for Debbie Ellor and her family, from Sutton Coldfield.

They were stuck in Marsa Alam in Egypt and were given what amounted to a six-day extension of their holiday courtesy of tour operators Thompsons.

“I can’t praise them enough really,” she said.

An airport spokesman said: “Flight schedules are now recovering but a small number of flights are still cancelled. People need to check with their airline or tour operator.”