"It was a nightmare"

Flight chaos: Styrians experienced an odyssey on their journey home

The family from southern Styria had to spend an unexpected night at the airport in Barcelona.(Bild: zVg)

The worldwide flight chaos caused by an IT glitch on Friday also affected numerous Styrians. Among them was a family whose flight home from Barcelona turned into a grueling odyssey. After more than 35 hours and virtually no sleep, the holidaymakers arrived home in southern Styria. 

After almost a week's vacation in Barcelona (Spain), André Kohlmaier from southern Styria and his family wanted to take the flight home to Vienna on Friday. It was the very day on which an IT glitch had caused chaos in air traffic worldwide. 

Initially, the passengers had to wait for more than two hours in the stationary plane operated by Irish low-cost airline Ryanair. "The air conditioning wasn't working, it must have been over 40 degrees in the cabin, the situation was extremely tense, we didn't get any information or anything to drink," Kohlmaier told Krone. 

No help, no information
Then all passengers were told to disembark again - at first no one knew what was behind it. The Styrians only found out later that evening that the flight had been canceled. "At first we were told that there would be a replacement flight on Tuesday." 

The Styrian family tried every possible way to find an alternative and got a flight to Budapest on Saturday morning. "We had to spend the night at the airport. Our sleeping children - they were dog-tired and nervous - were woken up again and again by the airport staff because you're not officially allowed to sleep on the ground," says Kohlmaier.

One had to stay behind
After an exhausting night, the next setback followed before departure to Budapest: "One seat was apparently double-booked, so one of us had to stay behind and book a new flight". Kohlmaier's son-in-law agreed to do this and separated from the group. 

After arriving in the Hungarian capital, the rest of the family then took a bus to Vienna for another four hours. By the time the son-in-law arrived, it was Saturday night. After arriving at the airport in Barcelona at 2 p.m. on Friday, the family arrived home in southern Styria - after around 35 hours - on Sunday night. 

"You can deal with delays, but I've never experienced anything like this before. We were left to our own devices and received no support whatsoever," says the man from Southern Styria, who could probably do with another vacation from the journey home with his family.