Thomas Cook has apologised after holidaymakers travelling to Cyprus faced flight delays after they were stuck for 18 hours leaving the UK and then another 17 hours coming home.
A Thomas Cook Airlines flight from Larnaca was due to land at Cardiff airport at 12.30am on Monday, but did not arrive until 5.45pm, after experiencing a technical fault.
But customers who had spent a week in Cyprus had already lost a night of their break after a bird strike led to their 1.35pm flight from Wales on September 21 being delayed until 7am the following day, according to the South Wales Aviation Group site.
Some travellers said the delay had also meant the loss of a day’s work.
Mark Archer, from Bridgend, and his partner Sarah Keast, were hit by both delays, Mail Online reported.
Cook, which put people up in hotels for each delay, said: “We’d like to sincerely apologise to our customers for the delay to their flight from Larnaca to Cardiff, which has been caused by an unexpected technical fault on the aircraft operating the flight.”
A spokesman added that the flight that was cancelled the week before was “affected by a double bird strike on its way into Cardiff to take our customers on holiday and therefore required an inspection of the engines.”
He added: “We know how frustrating these delays are, and we’d like to thank our customers for their patience and understanding.”