EasyJet tells passenger booked on Gatwick-Edinburgh flight to travel via Berlin after storms cancel services

Exclusive: Passenger had not brought her passport for the domestic flight

Around the houses: after cancelling a flight from London Gatwick (LGW) to Edinburgh (EDI), easyJet suggested routing via Berlin (BER) (Great Circle Mapper)

As an estimated 20,000 easyJet passengers were grounded due to bad weather over the weekend, Britain’s biggest budget airline has offered a passenger booked to fly from Gatwick to Edinburgh the option of travelling via Berlin.

“Severe weather conditions” on Sunday caused the cancellation of 93 easyJet flights to and from its main base, London Gatwick. A further 26 of the airline’s flights serving Luton airport were grounded.

Under air passengers’ rights rules, all affected travellers are entitled to “re-routing, under comparable transport conditions, to their final destination at the earliest opportunity”.

The Civil Aviation Authority says that if a cancelling airline cannot offer a same-day alternative flight, it must pay for a seat on another carrier if any are available.

But Tracy Thomson, an easyJet passenger booked to travel from Gatwick to Edinburgh whose flight was cancelled due to the storms, was instead offered a connecting journey via Berlin – a total journey of 1,320 miles, almost four times as far as the direct trip and adding nearly 1,000 miles to the distance.

She told The Independent: “The flight was delayed three times. Then we got the cancellation email and were offered Gatwick to Berlin then onto Edinburgh – which would work if we had passports but don’t expect that for internal flights.

“We were offered no other options unless we chose to fly on Monday or later in the week. But we needed to get home on Sunday.”

Passengers on the cancelled flight were told: “We’ve got three options available for you”. One was to request a refund, the second to accept a voucher for the cost of the flight. The third – “Switch to another flight for free” – offered only easyJet flights.

Ms Thomson found a direct flight on British Airways from London City airport to Edinburgh, which she booked using Avios points. Her flight was around half-an-hour late arriving into the Scottish capital.

An easyJet spokesperson said: “Our self-service booking management tool is designed to help customers rebook quickly and easily for free providing direct and indirect flights depending on availability.

“While indirect routing can work well for a lot of our network, particularly in Europe, we understand that on this occasion the option provided was not suitable.

“However customers have the option to book with another carrier or alternative transport such as a train if suitable easyJet flights are not available and we will reimburse them.”

On Monday morning a further 16 easyJet flights to, from or within the UK have been cancelled.

The easyJet spokesperson said: “easyJet operated around 1,700 flights yesterday and will operate a similar number today, however severe weather conditions yesterday affecting the UK and much of Europe unfortunately resulted in disruption across some UK airports and, like other airlines operating at Gatwick, easyJet was instructed to reduce its flying programme.

“This has resulted in a knock-on impact to this morning’s flying programme and we have notified customers in advance where possible to help rearrange their plans.”

“The safety and wellbeing of customers and crew is easyJet’s highest priority and, while this is outside of our control, we would like to apologise to customers for the inconvenience caused.”

British Airways has cancelled more than 40 short-haul (European and domestic) flights to and from London Heathrow on Monday as a result of weather-related disruption.