Over 150 Irish stranded in Greece since Saturday after Dublin flight cancelled twice

Their original TUI flight was cancelled a couple of hours before it was scheduled to depart on Saturday, and their rescheduled flight yesterday afternoon was cancelled minutes after they were due to depart.

Speaking to sundayworld.com this morning, Karen Ward, from Carrickmacross in Monaghan, said the lack of communication was the most frustrating part as they were only told minutes before their rescheduled flight that they had to leave their hotel.

"When the bus arrived at the airport [on Saturday] the TUI rep came onto the bus and said our flight had been cancelled,” Ms Ward said.

“We were taken to the hotel that night, the hotel that we were in was okay, but it’s not the holiday that we booked, it’s out in the middle of the country.

“We got up yesterday morning, came down for breakfast, there was no one here from TUI, no contact from them and at 10.25 some people were in showers, some people were still in bed, we got a shoutout from the reception desk saying we needed to check out of our rooms and that there was going to be a bus outside in five minutes.”

However the flight scheduled for 1.20pm was then cancelled.

"We were shipped onto the bus, driven to the airport, we checked in, queued, went through security, got to our boarding gate and five minutes after we were supposed to take off we were told our flight had been cancelled,” Ms Ward said.

"We were put back on buses, we collected our luggage and shipped back to the hotel, and since then we have had no contact from TUI.”

At 9am on Monday, the passengers hadn’t received any information from TUI about their new flight, but have since been told it will be at 9.30pm tonight.

"There are people here who are on medication, there's an older lady who had a hospital appointment, people missed work, dogs are in kennels, our car is at Dublin Airport so I don't know what the story is there,” Ms Ward said.

“There are people here and in another hotel. It was a full flight between 150 and 180, we are not sure what size of a plane it was.

“Some people left and flew home on their own, they got flights to England, I know one man had to go to something so he flew to Milan and then home, but not everyone is in a position to do that.”

In a statement to Independent.ie, a spokesperson for TUI UK and Ireland said: “We’d like to apologise to customers travelling on flight TOM1651 from Rhodes to Dublin which was unable to depart as planned on Saturday, 28 May, due to operational issues.

“All impacted customers were offered welfare vouchers, overnight accommodation and were provided with meals while we worked through a new flight plan.

"We have been in contact with customers and advised them of their new departure time as soon as we could.

"They are now due to arrive b ack in Dublin this evening.

“We’d like to thank customers for their patience and understanding during this time.”