Lindsay Whitaker is upset and disappointed in the airline, easyJet, and package holiday company loveholidays, for not responding to their complaints or messages.

A spokesperson for loveholidays has been in touch with Lindsay and advised her to contact the airline and keep any receipts to claim expenses back.

The next flight heading to Manchester Airport is not set to depart until next week at the earliest, and Lindsay says seats are limited cost thousands of pounds.

The mum, from Great Harwood, said: “We got a notification saying our flight was delayed that we must still visit the airport.

"We got to the airport and were told that our flight was cancelled.

“The airport said it was nothing to do with them. We are stuck here and we just can’t get in touch with anybody to help us.

“It is all getting a bit much for us now.

“There are no alternative flights and we cannot get in touch with any human beings who can help us.”

Lindsay says she has been in touch with easyJet but is yet to receive a response.

The group, which includes two other adult family members and three children, are staying in a hotel near the airport and living off credit cards and loans from family.

She said: “We are staying in a hotel near the airport and there aren’t any flights [for at least a week] and there are three stop offs meaning we will have to go across several countries.

“I have even contacted the British Embassy but they said this is not an issue for them.

“We can’t get any communication from easyJet to see if they are sending any more flights out to pick people up.

“The hotels [and other costs] are coming out of our own pocket. We are having to ring family and friends to borrow money or put it on credit cards.

“We have no toiletries or sun cream left and we are stuck in filthy clothes.

“The hotel looks like something straight out of a horror movie but at £50 [a night] each it was the cheapest we could find.

“We don’t know whether to stay put or head back into the city we just don’t know anything. There is no communication.”

Lindsay also says two of the children on the holiday, including her daughter Miri Rose Whitaker, might miss the first week of secondary school at St Augustine’s High School in Billington if alternative travel arrangements cannot be made.

She said: “We have three children with us, two of whom are meant to be starting secondary school next week and they are very anxious, upset and scared.

“It is such an anxiety provoking time for them and they aren’t even going to make it to the first day at this rate.

“I am a nurse and I am missing work as a result. My work [is understanding] but it is not in my plans to be off work for two to three weeks.”

After her experience Lindsay said she is reluctant to fly with easyJet in the future.

She said: “I will never fly with easyJet again.

“People flying with other airlines were looked after and taken to hotels but we were just left there.

“I feel so abandoned and let down. It is like nobody cares and we haven’t been helped at all.

“You expect these companies to look after you and sort this out. I am in disbelief.”

• READ MORE: Jordan North and Helen Flanagan impacted by air traffic control fault

Holidaymakers were hit by bank holiday travel delays, which started on Monday after a UK air traffic control failure meant flight plans had to be input manually by controllers.

By Monday afternoon, 232 flights departing UK airports had been cancelled and 271 arriving flights, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium.

The current flight disruption is predicted to last “for days” and transport secretary Mark Harper said it was the worst incident of its kind in ‘nearly a decade’.

Mr Harper said: “This was a technical fault. We do not think this was a cybersecurity incident.

“And what will happen now with an incident of this magnitude is there will be an independent review.

“The Civil Aviation Authority will be putting together a report in the coming days, which obviously I will take a look at to see whether there are lessons to learn for the future, to see whether we can reduce the impact of this again.

“It’s nearly a decade since there was a significant issue like this.

“We want to make sure it doesn’t happen again, because of all the disruption that’s been caused to passengers across the country.”

A spokesperson for loveholidays said: “We are currently experiencing a high volume of inbound enquiries from customers who have been affected by the National Air Traffic Services' technical fault.

"Our customer service team has tripled its resource to respond to customers as quickly as possible, and we apologise to Ms. Whitaker for any inconvenience caused by the delay.

“The airline is responsible for getting Ms. Whitaker and her children on to the next available inbound flight, and has a duty of care to ensure their safe return, including covering meals and accommodation. We have been in touch with Ms. Whitaker to explain this and advise her of her options."

easyJet has been approached for comment.

Have you been impacted by the travel delays? Email: sarah.mcgee@newsquest.co.uk