Family stranded on holiday as pilot’s licence runs out

The budget airline easyJet has agreed to pay nearly £1,750 compensation to a family who were stranded in the Canary Islands after their flight home was cancelled.

Nicola and Robert Starkie had been to a friend’s wedding with their two young daughters. When they arrived at the airport in Las Palmas on Grand Canary after their week-long break they were told that the pilot had forgotten to renew his licence to fly.

The couple and four other relatives were among 25 passengers who could not be placed on the next available flight. They were told that they would have to wait five days for a flight home and even then could not be guaranteed a seat.



To add insult to injury the airline told them it would pay for hotel accommodation for only two nights, leaving them to fend for themselves.

The Starkies, who were about to move house and had already had to take two days’ unpaid leave, found seats on a flight to Bristol with another carrier, at a cost of £400.

When they complained to easyJet they were initially told that they had no right to compensation beyond a refund on their tickets. It was only after the family went to their local newspaper that easyJet relented, offering them the full reimbursement to which they were entitled under EU rules.