Derbyshire students ‘devastated’ as travel company cancels 'once in a lifetime' trip at the last minute

Heanor Gate Spencer Academy was notified of the cancellation by Halsbury Travel Company on the evening of Thursday, July 13 – just a few days before the trip was meant to go ahead.

Principal Matthew Jones said: “The trip was due to depart the following Monday morning, leaving us only 24 hours to communicate with 50 devastated students and parents or carers. We are currently in communication with the travel company around the reasons behind the cancellation and are seeking compensation for our students and families."

Ieva Brown, mum of one of the pupils added: “The children had three trips to choose from and my daughter was lucky to pick a different trip. Other parents from her class are friends with me and they told me children are absolutely devastated. It’s a once in a lifetime experience for children and it’s not professional to cancel it last minute. Children are heartbroken.”

After cancelling the trip, Halsbury Travel Company tweeted on Monday: “It's finally school trip time @HeanorGateSA! We hope you have a fantastic time in Valencia! We can't wait to see the pics.”

Principal Jones replied on Twitter: “Absolutely embarrassing Halsbury Travel that you cancelled our trip 3 days prior to departure and have the audacity to post a message wishing our students a “fantastic time”. 50 heartbroken students missing out on the opportunity of a lifetime and you think this is acceptable?”

Halsbury Travel did not delete the Tweet but replied to Mr Jones: “We apologise for this tweet. After speaking to our operations team, they’ve informed me that on Thursday Ryanair notified us that the outbound flight to Valencia was cancelled due to ongoing air traffic control strikes.”

When contacted by the Derbyshire Times, a spokesperson for Halsbury Travel said: “We apologise to everyone affected by the cancellation of the trip, we completely understand how disappointed they must be.

“However, this was entirely due to circumstances beyond our control. We were notified by Ryanair on Thursday (July 13) that the outbound flight to Valencia was cancelled due to ongoing air traffic control strikes.

“Ryanair were unable to offer alternative flights and our team worked tirelessly to find options with other airlines, but due to the late notice and size of the group it sadly wasn’t possible to source a solution that enabled everyone to travel together.

“We contacted the school on Thursday (July 13) to inform them of the flight cancellation and offer an alternative which would have allowed the group to travel on two separate flights. For safeguarding reasons, the school had to make the difficult decision to cancel the tour.

“We are in the process of seeking compensation from Ryanair on the group’s behalf, as requested by the school.”

A spokesperson for Ryanair said: “This flight from East Midlands to Alicante was cancelled on 19 May for commercial reasons. Passengers were notified and advised of their options, which were either a refund or free change of flight.

“These passengers requested a refund for this flight from East Midlands to Alicante (17 July) on 13 July and Ryanair processed the refund in full (£11,946.78) to the card on the booking on 14 July.”