A FAMILY has been handed a refund when their holiday flights were cancelled at the last minute... by sending bailiffs to Luton Airport.

Russell Quirk, 55, of Shenfield, took action after Wizz Air pulled his family’s scheduled trip just three hours before take-off.

The family was left £3,900 out of pocket after Russell was forced to buy new, last-minute flights to Portugal when his original tickets were cancelled just as he was about to leave home.

The dad-of-four was forced to splash out over £2,700 on next day flights to Portugal, more than four times his original £700 fee, despite booking his seats four months in advance.

He feared his family would miss their much-needed summer holiday back in May 2022 and that he would lose out on roughly £6,000 for hotel and travel costs.

Russell, who owns a property PR agency, said: “I had no alternative. I could either take the best available alternative or lose out on £6,000.

“I booked the flights in January 2022 for the flights on May 30, 2022.

“They were to Faro in Portugal. We go there a lot, we’ve been there several times.”

Russell was reimbursed two months later in July for his initial ticket price but demanded the airline pay for the excess costs.

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He claimed the airline owed him £3,900 after the cost of the new flights, a night at the hotel and other expenses were added in and lodged a claim in county court.

Russell also claimed Wizz Airlines ignored his emails and letters and communication from the county court.

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He then applied for bailiffs who attended the Wizz Air desk at Luton Airport - saying they could take goods including chairs, tables, computers or even aircraft.

Wizz Air then handed over the £4,500 after additional fees were added.

A spokesperson for Wizz Air said: “In the summer of 2022, due to unprecedented levels of disruption across Europe and the UK which affected the entire industry, we fell short of our own aspirations and our customers' expectations.

"When things went wrong, we did not react quickly enough to manage the high volume of customer claims that resulted from this disruption.

''We are sorry about this and we are working to ensure that our customers' experience with Wizz is better this year."