The airport director has apologised to passengers following a ’challenging’ month of travel disruption, which has seen many flights cancelled.

But Ann Reynolds insisted the issues which had led to the cancellations had been unrelated - and variously involved bad weather, technical problems and crew shortages.

The weekend before last, EasyJet evening flights to Gatwick were cancelled on Friday and Saturday and delayed overnight on Sunday as was a Liverpool flight on Sunday, all due to weather disruption.

Monday’s evening flight from Gatwick was cancelled due to a runway closure and some passengers have reported nightmare journeys to get back to the island, with claims of seats not being available until last Friday.

There have been frequent complaints about cancellations of BA London City flights in recent weeks due to technical reasons.

Technical problems have also resulted in Flybe flights to Manchester and Liverpool being cancelled over the past month. One Flybe service was delayed following a bird strike as it came into land at Ronaldsway.

The airport director told iomtoday: ’There certainly has been a lot of travel disruption through the airport over the last month or so, culminating in several issues over the last few days.

’There has been no one particular cause but outside of disruption due to weather which affects all the airlines at the same time, there have been several issues which have occurred coincidentally at the same time but independently of each other.

’For example, there were one or two isolated periods of bad weather or weather related issues but on top of this, three airlines had unserviceability issues regarding aircraft and/or crew sickness.’

She confirmed that the London City service has had several aircraft unserviceability issues but BA, which she said is committed to the route, is currently considering how to improve aircraft reliability.

Ms Reynolds continued: ’In addition, one aircraft had a bird strike on the inbound flight to Ronaldsway although the airline did manage to get a new ’nose cone’ flown in and fitted so the aircraft departed within about two hours of scheduled departure, which is a very quick response.

’To top it off on Monday evening we also lost an evening Gatwick rotation due to a runway closure incident at Gatwick - so nothing to do with the Isle of Man or the airline.’

She added: ’It has been a very challenging time for all affected passengers to whom I’d like to send sincere apologies. I certainly hope that things calm down over the next few days.’

Peter Duke, chief executive of Duke Marketing, was due to fly from Gatwick in the evening of Friday July 27 which was cancelled.

He said: 'I was on a business day trip and eventually got home on Sunday morning after rebooking with easyJet for Saturday which was then cancelled.

'Alternative flights from anywhere to the island were hard to find on such a busy weekend so I was one of a number of Manx travellers to eventually get home, at heavy cost, via Liverpool.

'I wonder if anyone had the extra misfortune to rebook twice with easyJet via Gatwick and suffer the full effect of this hat-trick of service failures?'

He added: 'Does the era of low cost (most of the time) flying, with key airports running at or near full capacity, unfortunately mean that we have to live with almost zero resilience in most of the carrier networks?

'Living on an island, we all have to live with weather affecting travel plans but when technical, crewing and other operational problems are added to the mix, without any back-up, travel planning becomes very fraught. A challenge indeed for our strategic planners!'

Chrystal’s chairman Shane Magee was travelling with his elderly mother when they got caught up in the chaos at Gatwick last Monday when an emergency landing resulted in a runway closure.

Having been at the airport since 4pm, it was 10pm before they were collected by buggy from the special assistance area.

Told there were no hotel rooms available, they got the Gatwick Express back into London and checked into a hotel near Euston after midnight. After travelling by train to Liverpool, they finally caught a flight home on Tuesday evening.

Shane said: ’It was turmoil in Gatwick. If mum had been on her own what would she have done? My beef with easyJet is that they should deal with their elderly and vulnerable passengers first and not last.’

He added: ’It’s almost become a lottery as to whether you can get on and off the island. It does seem to be an increasing problem.’

Newly-weds James and Jenni Brew, of Ramsey, were returning from their honeymoon in Tanzania when they were caught in the same turmoil at Gatwick on Monday.

They were told there were no seats available back to the island with easyJet until Friday.

James said the customer service desk was inundated but fortunately a family member managed to find them a room at a nearby hotel - and seats on a flight from London City the next day.

He said: ’I don’t think this is isolated, it’s happening all the time. There is a lot of uncertainty, a lot of risk in getting flights. The over-riding feeling is that the island is at the bottom of their priority list.’

The Brews’ outward flight to Gatwick was also delayed by fog, making them fear they would miss their connecting flight.

’The most apprehensive part of a holiday is getting off the island,’ James said.

TravelWatch spokesman Terry Liddiard, former chief executive of Manx Airlines, said: ’We’ve certainly got more disruption than I’ve seen in a long time, mostly on London City. I think it’s unusual.

’It’s fair to say that a lot of these things are unrelated. The thing that I find absolutely astonishing it that the airport doesn’t keep reccords of flight cancellations.’

An easyJet spokesman said: ’Unfortunately due to thunderstorm activity across the UK on Saturday and Sunday easyJet, like other airlines, had to delay two flights from the Isle of Man and one flight had to be cancelled.

’We worked hard to minimise the disruption and passengers on the cancelled flight had the option of transferring onto the next available flight free of charge or obtaining a full refund. We also provided hotel accommodation and meals for those who required it.

’While the situation was outside of our control, we would like to apologise to passengers for any inconvenience. The safety of its passengers and crew is the airline’s highest priority.’

A BA spokesman said: ’We cancelled a handful of flights in June and July due to a combination of technical problems and weather. We apologised to customers affected, and re-booked onto alternative flights at the earliest opportunity.

’The Isle of Man route is an important air link.

’We are aware our July departures fell below our normally high regularity figures and are working on ways to improve that.’

A Flybe spokesman said a Liverpool flight on July 19, operated by Stobart Air, was cancelled due to a technical fault as was a flight to Manchester on Monday.

All passengers were accommodated on the next available flight. The airline apologised to passengers for the inconvenience.