Sheffield family left without baby milk after being stranded by sandstorm in Canary Islands

Hayley Seymour, her husband Ryan and their three boys, Logan, aged 10 months, Leon, five, and Rui, 10, were due to fly back from Tenerife after a week’s holiday on Saturday evening at 9pm but their flight finally departed for Manchester on Monday, February 24, at 4.15pm.

The 38-year-old IT worker from Wadsley told how they were forced to wait all day at the airport on the Sunday with little information from either airport staff or Jet2, through whom they booked the flights.

They ran out of nappies and baby milk for their youngest son, neither of which were available at the airport, were left waiting outside for a coach in the choking dust on Sunday and when another coach failed to appear on the Monday had to shell out 100 Euros to make sure they didn’t miss their return flight.

It wasn’t until 11pm on Monday that they eventually arrived home, exhausted and fed up after their gruelling experience.

“No one was telling us anything at all. We were just left waiting the whole time. It was awful,” said Ms Seymour.

“I was shaking on the flight back. I don’t know if that was from not eating properly or all the upset. It was horrendous.

“I understand they can’t fly if it’s not safe to do so but the way we were treated was just appalling.”

Ms Seymour told how they got to Tenerife South Airport at 7pm on Saturday and were eventually told at 11.30pm that their flight would not be departing that night.

They were put up at a hotel before being picked up at 11am the next morning and waiting at the airport until around 10.30pm, when they were again told they would not be leaving that day.

They were forced to queue outside for a coach as the sandstorm raged around them, and it was around midnight before they finally boarded the coach and close to 1am when they arrived at their hotel.

Although they were eventually provided with nappies and milk, Ms Seymour says that by the time they reached the hotel there were no facilities available to prepare the milk.

On the Monday morning, they got a text at 11.25am saying their coach would be outside in five minutes. When it still hadn't arrived by 12.30pm, they paid 100 Euros for a taxi to the airport.

Their flight was scheduled to depart at 3pm that day but they were left waiting beyond then with no information, before eventually getting just 20 minutes’ notice that their plane was ready to leave.

Jet2 has apologised to customers for any inconvenience caused by what it called ‘extraordinary circumstances’ completely beyong its control, and said its teams had been ‘working tirelessly to look after customers’.

The Star has approached the firm for a response to Ms Seymour's complaints.