A couple’s ‘holiday of a lifetime’ was ruined when their flight was cancelled after spending more than 12 hours waiting in Bristol Airport.

Diana and Alan Evans, of Yatton, arrived at the airport at 6.15am on March 18 and were due to fly to Reykjavik, in Iceland, at 8.15am to celebrate their 44th wedding anniversary.

Heavy overnight snow forced the runway to be closed until noon, with all flights delayed and many cancelled.

MORE: Runway closed and flights cancelled at Bristol Airport.

At 1pm, passengers were called to their gate and sat on the plane in readiness to leave.

After five hours of waiting, passengers were told they had to disembark as the ground behind the back wheels was frozen.

The airline then announced the flight was cancelled at 7.10pm.

Speaking about the ordeal, Diana said: “From our point of view, much of it comes down to mis-management and a lack of communication.

“During the time we sat on the plane, we saw other easyJet planes take off.

“We can’t help the weather, but the plane we were sitting in was never ready to fly, even though there were warnings about the weather.

“More could have been done.”

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The couple received a refund but due to the nature of the holiday, have not been able to rearrange it.

Diana said: “We wanted to go and see the Northern Lights, but this is not possible after March because the weather changes and it becomes too light in Iceland.

“This was a once in a lifetime trip for us.”

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A spokesman for easyJet said: “Like all airlines, easyJet’s flying programme from Bristol was severely disrupted on March 18 as a result of the adverse weather conditions and was required to cancel 61 flights to and from Bristol.

“easyJet did everything possible to minimise the disruption for our customers, communicating regularly by email, SMS, flight tracker and providing hotel rooms and meals for affected passengers.

“Customers on cancelled flights were provided the option of transferring their flight free of charge or obtaining a refund.

“The safety of our passengers and crew is easyJet’s highest priority. While this was outside of our control we would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused as a result of the weather.”