THE shine was taken off a group of friends’ Spanish holiday when crisis-hit airline Ryan­air cancelled their flight home at the 11th hour, leaving them stranded for three days.

Christina Meredith, manager of the George pub in St Briavels, was on holiday in Alicante with husband Peter and six other Wyedean friends when the airline texted to say their flight home the next day had been cancelled.

“To say we were cheesed off was an understatement,” said Christina. “Luckily we have friends in Spain about an hour’s drive away who put us up, but we couldn’t get a flight for another three days with Flybe and each seat cost £80 extra.

“It really spoilt the end of the holiday by creating loads of stress. We were just going in for lunch when we got the text. We rushed out to get our friends off the beach and were all worrying about what we were going to do.

“No one had any spare cash as it was the end of the seven-day break, and Ryanair’s next available flight was 10 days time, which was out of the question.

“We eventually managed to book with Flybe, which was a lot more expensive and started looking at hiring a villa for another three days at a cost of £400. Thankfully we then got in touch with some friends who very kindly were able to put us up.

“We also had to fly to Exeter instead of Bristol, which meant contacting the taxi firm and shelling out £200 to get everyone back to St Briavels and Bream.”

She added that although Ryanair say they will refund their missed flights and expenses, since returning home last Friday (October 13) the website keeps crashing every time she has tried to enter her flight number.

“The whole affair has created lots of extra hassle, and Ryanair haven’t been very helpful at all. Fingers crossed we can get our money back, at least,” she said.

Ryanair has cancelled thousands of flights since last month owing to a shortage of pilots, leaving many travellers stranded in airports and tourist destinations.