A PARTY of eight people from Bridestowe hit out at flight giant British Airways this week after their return holiday flight fell foul of a strike by French air traffic controllers.

The party had been staying in a gite in Provence and in true holiday mode had become out of touch with the news — apart from the progress of the World Cup.

It came as a shock when they arrived at Marseilles Airport last Wednesday lunchtime to be told the earliest flight they could take home was on Friday afternoon.

One of the party, Okehanpton Times editor Colin Brent, said: 'Too many of us had work commitments we had to get back to. The only way to get home was to hire a mini-bus, drive the length of France from Marseilles to Calais and catch a ferry to Dover.'

Mr Brent said the tiring trip, shared by two drivers, was a bad enough end to a lovely holiday — but the attitude of British Airways staff at Marseilles made matters even worse.

'They just said the flights are cancelled and shrugged their shoulders. While accepting the strike was not British Airways' fault, we found the attitude of their staff uncaring and unhelpful — there was no attempt to find us an alternative way home,' said Mr Brent.

'The only help they did give was to allow us to use their telephone, and then only after we had requested it. We rang P&O Stena in Dover and arranged a ferry booking. The contrast in customer relations could not have been more marked — P&O staff were friendly, helpful and efficient.

'British Airways has had its troubles recently and one would have thought they would strive for better public relations — in this instance they failed miserably.'

Mr Brent said the 10-hour, 1,100 kilometre drive and ferry home cost an extra £150 per couple at the end of the holiday — the party then had various waits before arriving back via bus and train at Gatwick to pick up their cars.

British Airways has promised the party vouchers for the cost of the return flight — but Mr Brent said a little more consideration would have gone a long way to making up for the disappointment at the end of the holiday.

'We were so relaxed at the end of the holiday but we all came home feeling tired and dishevelled,' he said.

A spokesman for British Airways said: 'We can only apologise if people found our customer service was not of the highest quality.

'It was a very busy day for us, we had to cancel 122 out of 126 flights out of France that day. Events were completely out of our control and we were in fact the only airline getting out information on the day before the strike.'

The spokesman said the 'vast majority' of people were either given refunds or a rebooked flight if they were affected by the strike.