Family going on holiday to Greece 'selected' to be cut from TUI flight... after waiting TWO DAYS at Manchester Airport

A family has told how they were selected to be removed from a flight to Greece from Manchester Airport as the plane was too small following a 48-hour delay.

The Riley family, Daniel, 43, his wife, Diane, 41, and their daughter Eva, 11, finally got out of the airport at 5pm on Monday - a full two days after first arriving. They spoke out as the Manchester Evening News reports early hours queues at the airport AGAIN as the bank holiday weekend begins.

The Rileys were booked to fly to Crete on Sunday morning and took up airline TUI's advice to drop off their luggage the night before to help with congestion. Having travelled up from Barnsley, South Yorkshire, they waited for three hours in 'chaos' at Manchester Airport before finally checking in their bags at around 8pm on Saturday.

They then opted to book into an on-site hotel, ready for the following day. The Rileys quickly moved through to departures at 4am, but were then hit with mammoth delays and cancellations which would eventually see them not go on holiday at all, reports The Mirror.

On Sunday, they sat on the plane on the runway for three hours before all passengers were escorted back inside the airport. Another three-hour wait followed before the airline messaged everyone to say the flight was off and to return the next afternoon.

"There was nobody there to give you any information," Daniel said. "We'd waited on the runway for hours, due to the backlog of cases and lack of staff they couldn't get the luggage onto the plane. And eventually when the luggage did come out and they started loading it, because of the time we'd been waiting they were forced to unload it and the flight was delayed."

The passengers were told several hours later that they could not be