SEVERAL residents from Southampton and Eastleigh who planned to fly home from Gran Canaria over the weekend are still stuck at the Spanish airport.

Flights were reportedly cancelled from Gran Canaria and Tenerife due to a sandstorm that hit the Canary Islands on Saturday.

But around 30 people who planned to fly to Gatwick on travel agency TUI have still not made it back to their homes three days later, including 15 of them from Southampton and its surrounding areas.

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The company apologised to their customers on Sunday evening.

But 28-year-old primary school teacher Sarah Hobbs, from Bishopstoke, Eastleigh, said they were informed they would be home by 8am today and that they are being told "one lie after another".

She said: "We were told that we would be flying back to Manchester or that we wouldn't get home by someone at the gate yesterday.

"We agreed to do this, but then we were told that there were no flights and that the gate for the flight was closed. Someone's mum was on that flight yesterday and she said there were spare seats on there."

Sarah had flew to Gran Canaria a week ago with her husband Jack and two friends, and were put up in a hotel near Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Airport after their 8.25pm flight on Saturday was cancelled.

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She added: "We have no idea what's going on - it's one lie after another. We are all stuck out here and we don't even know where our suitcases are because they went through on another flight.

"It's a massive inconvenience to everyone involved and for where we work. It's all a bit unknown. We've been in the airport line for two and a half days."

One person posted on Twitter: "What's going on?! My parents have been stuck in Gran Canaria since Saturday now, nobody from your company keeping people there informed. My 70-year-old dad sleeping on a bench in the airport last night! Not good enough!"

Sarah said they have since been told they will fly back to Cardiff at 2pm today.

A spokesperson for TUI said: “We would like to sincerely apologise to our customers whose flights were disrupted by adverse and changeable weather conditions in the Canary Islands over the past few days.

"The safety of our customers and crew is always our highest priority and we’re working tirelessly to get everyone to their destination as quickly as possible.

"Following an improvement in the weather, all flights scheduled to depart from the Canary Islands today will be operating as planned.

"We are very sorry for any inconvenience caused and would like to thank our customers for their co-operation and patience.

"For the most up to date flight information, please visit https://www.tui.co.uk/flight/arrivals-and-departures."