A COUPLE holidaying in Spain fear they might be stuck there after struggling to book a rescue flight home.

Shannon Bateson from Eldene went to Playa Blanca in Lanzarote with partner Lucas Braithwate for her first independent trip abroad which soon turned into a nightmare.

Their flight was cancelled hours before leaving their hotel. Spending days in the airport trying to book another one has been stressful and exhausting.

Shannon, 23, said: “It’s been horrible. You don’t expect to be stranded for weeks when you go on holiday.

“I’ve felt totally lost, I’ve broken down crying because I just don’t know what to do. We’re worried that we might be trapped here.

“We have a puppy at home and are worried about its safety. Luckily, our families have been very supportive and tried to help in any way they can.

“We left our hotel last Saturday and were told two hours before we checked out that the flight was cancelled.

“We were later given emergency accommodation but the hotels are closing in a few days. What happens if we’re still here after that?

“I’d be scared of going on holiday abroad again after this experience.”

After struggling with long queues and a lack of information, the pair have booked a flight home three times only for each one to be cancelled. They hope that their fourth attempt, due to depart tomorrow, is more successful.

Lucas said: “I've never been stranded in another country before, it's awful. The worst part was at the airport, it was chaos.

"A lot of people were in the same boat as us, with flights cancelled and nowhere to go, walking around with their suitcases.

"Noone had boarding passes so they kept getting turned away, some slept on the street. Fights started breaking out, people were crying, the staff didn't seem to know what to do and the queues seemed to never move.

"Luckily, we met a family who had a villa where we could stay the night, then we got offered emergency accommodation.

"We've been on the phone for hours, we've been emailing, it's been very frustrating.

"We've spent a lot of money going back and forth to the airport every day and on these flights which keep getting cancelled. Fingers crossed this one goes ahead."

Shannon’s worried grandmother Jackalyn Harmsworth said: “I’ve been trying to keep her calm because she’s so upset, she cries during all of our calls.

“Noone at the airport seemed to know how to help her or how she could get home. They kept trying to go online but you couldn’t book any flights home on the website.

“It was ridiculous - she could see so many planes flying off but had no way of getting onto any of them. I'm worried that they would be trapped there with nowhere to go after Spain goes into lockdown.”