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Channel Islands flight and ferry passengers stranded by fog

Fog and faults are causing delays and cancellations in the Channel Islands’ busiest tourist week of the year.

Sailings between the islands and Poole were cancelled because the Condor Liberation developed a fault, which will cause further problems today (Tuesday).

Up to 1,000 passengers were left stranded on Sunday after heavy fog caused flights to be cancelled in Jersey.

Some passengers were told there would be no return flight until Wednesday.

Flybe flights to Edinburgh, Manchester, Exeter and Southampton were cancelled on Sunday as well as EasyJet services to Gatwick, Liverpool and Glasgow.

Condor Ferries said the Condor Liberation high speed catamaran suffered a main engine failure due to a fuel system problem while sailing to Guernsey yesterday.

The vessel has been taken out of service today as a result with service to the Channel Islands from Poole cancelled.

The ferry firm said: “Our engineering team are working around the clock to rectify the issue, regrettably it is necessary to take Condor Liberation out of service on Tuesday 9th August for repair work to be carried out.”

As many as 1,700 ferry passengers are due to have their trips cancelled on Tuesday because of the fault.

Alan Donald, from Ports of Jersey, told the BBC: “It is the peak of the summer season, so a lot of flights are already booked so it is difficult to book passengers in.

“This is the time of the year where airlines don’t have spare capacity to arrange additional flights. This is particularly affecting easyJet services.

“We believe some on easyJet could be facing three or four day delays.”

An easyjet spokesman said the airline was looking at increasing the size of the aircraft operating into Jersey to accommodate more passengers.

She said: “Although this is beyond easyJet’s control, we would like to apologise to affected customers and thank them for their understanding.

“We sourced hotel accommodation for as many passengers as we could and also informed passengers that if they found their own accommodation we would reimburse them

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