Italy wildfires: Holidaymakers from Reading left with €5,000 bill

Rome: A couple on holiday in Sicily have described spending a “very stressful” five days trying to return to the UK after wildfires hit the Italian island.

Debra and Brian Hamblin, from Woodley in Reading, were due to fly home on the day fire broke out at Palermo’s international airport.

They said they had no communication from EasyJet and were left with an extra bill of €5,000 (£4,500).

The airline apologised and said the circumstances were “far from ideal”.

Mrs Hamblin said: “We lost trust in easyJet’s ability to organise our return – so we had to fend for ourselves.”

EasyJet said it would be in contact with the customers “to apologise and assist with expenses”

The couple booked a five-day holiday package to Sicily with three other couples, but ended up staying on the island for 10 days.

Mrs Hamblin said: “It was hectic, our flight was delayed and then EasyJet booked us a hotel on the other side of the island.”

The wildfires started the day the couple, who were staying at the Excelsior Palace Hotel in Taormina, were due home.

The wildfire was one of several on the island and spread due to windy conditions.

The couple were booked into Il Principe in Catania across the island for an additional five days.

Mrs Hamblin said: “This wasn’t a tourist area, and the company said we’d have to find our own way there, even though they had originally booked all out transport.

“We were just stuck there for five days with no communication.”

They finally managed to fly from Palermo to Milan, where they hoped to board another flight back to Gatwick.

Mrs Hamblin said: “We are an older group travelling so we are all on medication and have health issues, it was a very stressful and a worrying time for us to then be told at Milan airport that they had made a mistake and we were not booked onto a flight.

“We were then stranded at Milan.”

EasyJet offered them another hotel near Milan airport but the party of eight decided that they had “lost all faith in EasyJet to get them home”.

They booked a British Airways flight back to Gatwick as half of the party had ran out of medication and had to urgently return home.

Mrs Hamblin said: “It cost us an additional €333 per person but our health issues were pressing.

“It was very clear that EasyJet did not care about us as customers as they were not putting our needs first they were clearly putting costs above our needs.”

An EasyJet Holidays spokesperson said: “We did everything we could to get these customers home as soon as possible, but unfortunately the next available flight home wasn’t until the 23 July, via Milan.

“We really appreciate that the circumstances were far from ideal for our customers, and whilst the situation was out of our control, we’d like to apologise again.

“We’ll be in contact with the customers to apologise and assist with expenses.”