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Daily Record
Daily Record
World
Louisa Streeting & Gemma Ryder

Bride forced to cancel dream Cyprus wedding after TUI axe flight hours after delay

A bride and groom were left with no choice but to cancel their dream wedding after travel chaos axed their flights abroad at the weekend.

Seren Rounds, 27, had been planning the special day with her fiancé Adam Howells, 29, for the last three years but their upcoming nuptials have now been put up in the air after numerous flights were cancelled by TUI from Bristol Airport on Saturday.

The couple from Caerleon in South Wales were all set to fly to Paphos, Cyprus, with a wedding party of 34 at 1.34pm.

Friends and family arrived at their airport with them four hours before departure having seen news of the challenges at airports recently, Bristol Live reports.

After passing through security the Paphos flight remained showing as 'on time' but then the delays struck and the wedding party began to fear the worst.

Ms Rounds stepfather Kevin Trenchard, 55, from Caerleon, Newport, said: "They called us down to the gate to give us the bad news, which at that stage was that the flight had been delayed until 10.30pm Sunday (May 29) evening."

The airport staff initially said they could only find 13 hotel rooms to accommodate passengers affected by the flight change, at which point some of the wedding party with young children left for a hotel in Bristol.

He explained: "They then made the announcement that the flight has been cancelled and that we'd all get a refund."

Passengers have been offered £200 vouchers along with a full refund and a £350 compensation sum per person by the airline.

Eleven people in the wedding party had already flown out to Paphos a few days earlier but the bride and groom have not been able to find any way to join them.

After looking at their options the family realised there was no way they could rebook 34 people in the party on flights in time for the wedding on June 2.

"She was obviously broken yesterday and they're actually in Tui in Newport trying to sort something else out but it doesn't look like it's going to happen," Mr Trenchard added.

He said his step-daughter had been planning the wedding meticulously for the past three years.

He said: "Because she's a school teacher we are limited to the available slots we can get away.

"She may still get married later this year but if we do that it might have to be somewhere like Vegas where we can just go and get it done without any big planning.

"If you want to get married [in the UK] it takes ages to find an available slot."

A spokesman for TUI added: "We would like to apologise for the inconvenience to our customers on flight BY 6676 from Bristol to Paphos, on Saturday, May 28, who were delayed to a combination of factors causing significant operational disruption.

"Unfortunately, we felt the impact to customers holiday was too great and took the difficult decision to cancel the flight.

"We contacted affected customers as soon as we became aware of the change and all customers will receive a full refund within 14 days.

"We understand how disappointing and frustrating this is and we do apologise for any inconvenience caused."

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