An Irish family was forced to pay €450 for replacement flights home after Thomas Cook went bust.
Sean Tolley, his wife Maureen and their eight-year-old daughter Lily May were left with nowhere to turn after the collapse of the British travel company.
The family, from Donegal, were halfway through their €1,400 holiday in Lanzarote when news filtered through that their return flight to Belfast International Airport was in jeopardy.
Turning to the hotel reception in search of a longer stay they were told it was “completely booked”.
The family was informed the Civil Aviation Authority would arrange a new flight but that fell through as well, forcing them to fork out the last of their cash on flights home or face sleeping in the street with their young child.
Speaking to Donegal Daily from Lanzarote on Wednesday night, Mr Tolley said: “On the first day this all happened, they instructed us to update our personal information online and they would keep us informed.
“But not one person has contacted us and my wife was on the phone today again and we were informed there was nothing that they could do for us.
“It’s terrible, it’s absolutely terrible.
“We have an eight-year-old autistic daughter and if we were to go to an airport full of queues everywhere, she would go into a meltdown.
“We’ve had to go online and buy the last three seats available on a Ryanair flight that will fly us into Dublin.
“We live in Buncrana and flew from Belfast and I have my car parked there but I had to secure the fact we are going to get out of here because it is putting my family through a terrible time.”
Thomas Cook went under on Monday when it was unable to get €220million to keep it afloat.
