Passengers left stranded after 44-hour delay to flight

Dozens of families have been left stranded at Manchester Airport for days, after their flight was delayed by 44 hours.

The Tui flight - to Bulgaria - was due to set off on Monday evening.

According to one passenger, Julie, they were waiting in the departures lounge on Monday evening for their 6.30pm flight.

"We were due to board and they said they would call us up, then we got told there were crew issues and we'd get an update. We were then told, unofficially, that the captain hadn't turned up. We then saw our baggage being taken off.

"We were offered hotels for the night and told our flight would get priority in the morning and we were given 15 minutes to get something to eat.

"The next day we were moved into a meeting room with the other people on our flight and given something to eat, which was just some bolognese and sauce. By that point we still had no update.

"We made the kids go to sleep because we thought we'd then be flying that evening but we saw it had been cancelled again until 2pm this afternoon." I've just got off the phone with Julie - she's currently waiting in the departures lounge.

"We're hungry, we're tired, we're annoyed we're not on holiday. The kids are climbing up the walls because they sick of being stuck in a hotel all day. Now, we're losing patience with our own kids because you're trying to keep them in check and making them sit down, but they don't want to sit down, do they?"

Michelle is waiting to fly with her friend and her nine year old daughter:

"I would have thought that just as a basic courtesy, we would have had emails and updates. It's been very difficult as well to get hold of people at a call centre. At times if you got through to the wrong person, they have been quite rude.

"But, we're there now, we're waiting to go now and hopefully this time tomorrow we'll be sat on sun loungers working on my tan. You've got to remain positive because otherwise it would tarnish your holiday."

The flight is due to depart this afternoon.

A Tui spokesperson said:

"We would like to apologise to customers on the delayed flight TOM2174 from Manchester to Bourgas, Bulgaria.

"The flight was originally delayed due to short notice changes to our flying programme and then further impacted due to a technical issue with the aircraft.

"The flight is now scheduled to depart today, 30th May at 14:00.

"Customers have been provided with full board hotel accommodation.

"We have been in direct contact with our customers to offer a gesture of goodwill or help find another holiday. We understand how frustrating a flight delay can be and would like to thank them for their patience whilst we do everything we can to minimise the disruption."