Nearly 150 passengers stormed the VIP lounge after discovering their flight from Dalaman back to Leeds Bradford Airport had been delayed by 24 hours.

The protest was the culmination of a catalogue of problems the travellers say they had to endure including being forced to sleep outside a hotel and being left without food and water for hours.

Passenger Claire Iversen, from Little London, Leeds, said: "We all stuck together and stood up for ourselves. If we had not have protested I think we would still have been in that airport now."

Fellow traveller Angela Rukas, from Cookridge, added: "We wouldn't normally do this sort of thing but we had no option. It was only when we packed ourselves into the VIP lounge that the airport staff finally started taking notice of us."

The nightmare unfolded in the early hours of Bank Holiday Monday when 300-Leeds bound passengers travelled from their holiday hotels to Dalaman Airport.

They arrived at 3.20am for their 5.30am flight home to the UK.
Claire, 35, said: "We waited and waited to check in but the desks never opened. About two hours later we were told the flight had been cancelled. We got no explanation at all."

Instead, the passengers, who had booked with the Surrey-based Goldtrail travel company, were put onto coaches and taken to a hotel back in the centre of Dalaman.

But when they arrived, Claire says hotel managers had no idea they were coming and had no free beds.

Claire, who travelled with partner Michael Byrne and their nine-year-old son Gabriel, said: "We were put off the coaches and the drivers just sped off leaving us to it. We had to sleep on the floor in the reception or outside. There was one water cooler for 300 passengers and it soon ran out.

"It was an absolute nightmare."

Angela, 45, who had her husband and two children with her, said: "There was not even any bedding or pillows for people. We were laying in the foyer in near 50 degree heat. It was awful."

The travellers say they spent the next eight and a half hours trying to contact their holiday company but to no avail.

At 4pm they were told by the hotel that two jets had been organised and would leave Dalaman at 4.30pm.

The first plane was filled with passengers who were flown safely home. However, 144 people were left behind, expecting to catch the second plane.

Again they were told there would be a delay - this time until 6.30pm. At 7.40pm, with still no sign of a flight, the passengers began to protest.

Claire, a carer, said: "It started off good naturedly. We were all shouting "flight, flight, flight". We took over the VIP area and refused to leave until they sorted something out.

"The airport called the police to deal with us and they were very aggressive and intimidating. They started unclipping their guns. We were doing nothing wrong – we were not being violent, we were just voicing our opinions. They did not need to act like that."

They were eventually seen by an airport manager at 9.30pm who told them a flight would be leaving at 1am.

He asked the travellers to return to the hotel in Dalaman, but they refused. The British Embassy, instead, arranged for them to stay in the VIP lounge until the flight was announced.

The promised flight, however, once again failed to materialise, and it was 5am before the holidaymakers embarked on their journey home.
They finally arrived in Leeds at around 8.15am GMT.

Claire, who paid £1,295 for the family trip, said: "We were absolutely exhausted but just so pleased to be home." She has since made several phone calls to Goldtrail but has been unable to get through to advisers.
When the YEP tried to contact the company, it was twice cut off after waiting in queues for 20 minutes.

On a third attempt, we were told that the entire customer service department was either on leave or on holiday. The managing director did not return our calls.

Read our hour of live webchat with the Boot Room's Andrew Hutchinson to find out what fans thought about Leeds United's thrashing of Crystal Palace and their forthcoming fixtures against Bristol Rovers and Bradford City.

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