British tourists in 38-hour flight delay in Tenerife

Around 200 British holidaymakers were stranded in Tenerife for 38 hours after their Monarch flight to the UK was cancelled.

Angry tourists spoke of their holiday nightmare after their 12.40am flight from the Canary Islands to Birmingham on Tuesday was cancelled.

See also: What are my rights if my flight is delayed?

Speaking to the Birmingham Mail, passenger Jean Stenson, from Solihull, said: "We arrived at Tenerife Airport for the return flight and became suspicious something was wrong when the disabled in wheelchairs, who had been given priority seating, were taken off the plane.

"After waiting some time we were told the flight would not being going ahead until the following day."

Mrs Stenson said they were taken to a hotel and given meals and soft drinks but queued for at least an hour to check in.

See also: Ryanair passengers in 51-hour flight delay in Lanzarote

She added that the next day, they waited in the sun for two hours for the coach to take them back to the airport.

Holidaymakers complained that nobody kept them informed throughout the delay. The flight left Tenerife at 3pm on Wednesday.

A Monarch Airlines spokeswoman told MailOnline: "The aircraft developed a technical issue down route in Tenerife. Engineers were dispatched to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.

"However, this resulted is the flight stopping in Tenerife and operating back to the UK the following day."

The spokeswoman said customers were given meals, beverages and accommodation for the night, as well as vouchers to use in the airport restaurants.

"Our engineers resolved the issue as quickly as possible and although this resulted in a delay to the flights return to the UK, the safety of our customers, crew and aircraft is our first priority," she said. "We apologise to our customers for the inconvenience."

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