An airline has been criticised for a lack of “care” after an under-15s rugby team were left stranded when their flight home was cancelled.

The Edenbridge Rugby Club side were due to fly from Gibraltar to London with easyJet last night after their first international match.

The group of 19 children and 20 adults were on a boat trip when they found out the flight had been cancelled due to bad weather.

With no access to a reliable internet connection, they were unable to rebook it themselves.

Back in the UK, parent Alison Fotheringham attempted to get them on another flight with easyJet and was told as it had been booked online it needed to be re-booked that way.

But when she tried to access the information she found it had been blocked – as did the club manager who had organised the trip.

Alison, of Manor House Gardens, said she then attempted to contact the airline but was continually told it had to be booked online and was not offered any further help.

“The boys were having a fantastic weekend,” the 45-year-old added. “But this has been absolutely horrific to bring the children and their families home.

“We have had to do everything ourselves, with no help from the airline. It has been so stressful. Everybody is just really upset.

“The children are missing school, some of the boys had GCSE exam prep this week which they are missing so they are stressed about that, and the parents cannot go to work.

“We accept bad weather affects flights but it is the fact easyJet is no longer engaging with us. There is just no care.”

The team has managed to book everyone on to different flights across the next three days yet most of them are having to travel almost 80 miles to Malaga, in Spain – an hour-and-a-half drive from Gibraltar airport.

Around three are still stranded in Gibraltar until Wednesday morning as one child cannot enter Spain due to passport restrictions.

The parents have also had to fund the additional costs for flights, taxis and hotels, costing around £18,000.

“None of us are pretty rich but we have had to pay all these extra costs up front,” Alison added. “It has just been so stressful to get our families home.”

Her son Lewis, 15, and husband Ian, 47, are booked to fly home tomorrow.

A spokesman for easyJet said: “Due to adverse weather conditions in Gibraltar on May 21 we were unfortunately unable to operate the group’s flight to London Gatwick yesterday.

“The safety and wellbeing of our customers and crew is always easyJet’s highest priority and we did everything possible to minimise the impact of the weather disruption for customers including providing a free transfer to an alternative flight or a refund as well as hotel accommodation where available and meals for those customers who required them and advised any customers who sourced their own that they would be reimbursed.

“We are in contact with the group to reimburse them for any expenses they have incurred and understand more about their experience as we know that alternative options were unfortunately limited for a large group to travel together.

“While this was outside of our control, we would like to apologise to the inconvenience caused as a result of the weather.”