A GROUP of friends from Rhyl went through a “nightmare” 14-hour wait at an airport in Portugal, putting a dampener on what was otherwise a nice holiday.

When Kelly Margett flew out to Porto on July 8 with her friends, little did they know what awaited them on their travels.

After having had a “great time” in Portugal, they were due to return to the UK on July 11, with a flight to Liverpool John Lennon airport set to depart at 8.30am that day.

“Finally the weather started to look good, that was until we have a beep over the microphone saying the plane won't be able to leave due to a mechanical error,” Kelly told the Journal.

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“Around an hour later another announcement said a plane will be flying back from the UK to Portugal to pick everyone up, but not until 9 in the evening.”

Thus began the group’s 14-hour wait in Porto airport, with their airline, Ryanair, giving passenger €4 vouchers to last them until the flight departed at around 11.30pm.

She added: “Holiday nightmares - everyone was angry just lying on the cold floors of the airport and not being able to sleep because of the cold floor.”

“We hope to get full compensation.”

A Ryanair spokesperson said: “This flight from Porto to Liverpool (11 July) was delayed due to a minor technical issue with the inbound aircraft.

“Affected passengers were notified and kept up to date via email and PUSH.

“They received 4x sets of refreshment vouchers while they waited for engineers to service the aircraft, which was cleared to return to service before departing for Liverpool later that same day.

“We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience caused a result of this unavoidable delay which was beyond Ryanair’s control.”