Football fans 'bitterly disappointed' to miss Wales' historic moment as Switzerland flight cancelled
Jack Cresci is missing the historic chance to see Wales in Euro 2025 due to the travel disruption and has hit out after being 'completely abandoned' by British Airways.
He and his friends instead faced a 'bleak and disappointing' walk through Cardiff at 4am after the 270-round trip to and from Heathrow Airport.
He told ITV Wales: 'Unfortunately our flight got cancelled on the tarmac at Heathrow due to a technical issue with the plane.
'We were told initially they had to wait for a headset to be on board which took about half an hour and then after that we were told there was a technical issue - which even when the engineers got on board, they were unfortunately not able to fix - so we weren't able to fly that night.'
The Wales fans were told there would be a British Airways team waiting for them to chat through alternative options to travel to Switzerland but they say no-one could be seen.
'We were pretty much completely abandoned,' Jack said. 'Every time we checked the website, there was just absolutely nothing on Switzerland.
'So unfortunately, we've missed a historic moment really for Welsh football and seeing us play at the Euros, which is just really, really, disappointing.'
British Airways offered Jack a hotel to stay overnight but he says the only options presented were 2-3 hours away from the airport, calling it 'just ridiculous'.
'It hit home at that point, we were going to be missing everything. By the time we got back to Cardiff, it was 4am. We had to walk home then through the dark streets of Cardiff - it was just quite bleak and disappointing, to be honest.'
Jack is hoping for a refund from British Airways but hasn't heard back, he says. 'It was really, really frustrating especially because we're now missing such a historic moment because of it.'
British Airways have been approached for a response.
It isn't the only airline leaving passengers grounded as both Ryanair and easyJet cancelled hundreds of flights due to French air traffic control strikes.
Thousands had their travel plans disrupted as Ryanair said it was forced to make 170 cancellations on Thursday and Friday.
Strike action affected flights to and from France – and also flights over the country to destinations such as the UK, Greece, Spain and Ireland – impacting more than 30,000 passengers.
EasyJet said it had cancelled 124 flights today and was scrapping 150 tomorrow due to the industrial action.
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