After a nine-hour flight delay, the Daily Mail’s deputy travel editor has shared a major airport warning to travellers.

Hayley Minn was almost stranded in Malaga as a result – and is keen to make sure holidaymakers don’t fall into the trap themselves.

Hayley was due to take a 5pm flight EZY8072 from Malaga to Gatwick Airport on Sunday, October 5.

But when she was told her flight was delayed by nine hours – from 5pm to 2.45am – she decided to leave the airport and check in to a hotel for a few hours and then come back.

Hayley said: ‘But when I came back, my boarding pass didn’t work and security knew nothing about what I was saying, telling me my flight wasn’t leaving until 4pm later that day, and there was no one on the easyJet desk.

‘They wouldn’t let me through for almost 30 mins and I almost missed my flight. I ended up finding someone who could check and she got high security to let me through.’

Hayley’s warning is that travellers should not leave the airport in these circumstances.

Upon arriving at the airport, ‘we all went through as normal,’ Hayley said, ‘but suddenly we were told there was a problem with the plane and we needed to wait a bit longer, I’d say we were waiting for 40 minutes.’

After a nine-hour flight delay, the Daily Mail’s deputy travel editor Hayley Minn (pictured in Malaga) has shared a major airport warning to travellers

Hayley was due to take a 5pm flight EZY8072 from Malaga to Gatwick Airport on Sunday, October 5

After that, passengers on her flight were taken out of the flight corridor, and back outside the gate, and made to wait for another 20 minutes.

But then they were informed the flight was cancelled ‘because there was a technical problem with the aircraft’.

‘Loads of people immediately started rebooking onto new flights, just hoping that easyJet would give them money.

‘But I was unable to do so because the other flights were all selling out and there weren’t any with just hand luggage left – which I had. And it was so expensive and I wasn’t sure if I’d get the money back.

‘Suddenly, they told us it wasn’t actually cancelled, just delayed until 2.45am.’

Hayley said someone near to her had the idea to book into a hotel nearby.

Hayley added: ‘So I did that, found a £60 Travelodge hotel a 10-minute drive away and I left the airport, went back through passport control and to the hotel.’

She set an alarm to leave Travelodge Malaga Airport in time for her flight, and got back to the airport at 12.45am.

Hayley was almost stranded in Malaga as a result – and is keen to make sure holidaymakers don’t fall into the trap themselves

‘I left way too much time – I thought,’ Hayley said. ‘But when I went to scan my boarding pass it didn’t work – because I’d already used it.

‘There’s obviously security there, so I called them over, and luckily, I can speak a bit of Spanish.

‘They had no record of my flight being delayed – I think because we weren’t meant to leave and come back with the same boarding pass. They had no information about this, and when I showed them my flight number, they could only see a flight for 4pm.

‘So they kept telling me my flight was delayed even more – until 4pm on Monday. I started crying, as I was so stressed and tired.’

Staff told Hayley to go to the easyJet desk, and an easyJet staff member, on the 24/7 chat app, told her she needed to speak to the ground staff for help.

But no one was there at 1am.

However, she did manage to find someone in the end,

‘I went back to security and begged, “let me in, let me in, I need to get on this plane.” I was stressing so much, thinking I wasn’t even going to get on the plane at this rate.’

Hayley’s warning is that travellers should not leave the airport in these circumstances

They sent Hayley over to another staff member who called through to easyJet to check, and got confirmation the flight was leaving at 2.45am.

‘I got really high security – I think staff security – to let me in and it was fine.

‘I got through around 1.15am eventually, and I was really stressed.

‘My warning is if your flight is delayed, don’t leave the airport. Only leave the airport if it’s cancelled so the airline has to provide you with a new boarding pass if you don’t want that stress.

‘On the flip side, I didn’t get any sleep but I got a nice meal and a bed for a bit and rest, whereas a lot of people – 72 in total – didn’t take the flight in the end and got on other flights.’

She said that 130 people did get on the flight and when she got back to the gate, everyone had been sleeping across chairs, uncomfortably, in the airport, while she had been at the hotel.

In a statement to the Daily Mail, easyJet said: ‘We are sorry that flight EZY8072 from Malaga to London Gatwick on 5 October was delayed due to an aircraft technical issue.

‘We arranged for a replacement aircraft to operate the flight and provided customers with regular updates and refreshment vouchers via our flight tracker, as well as information on options to rebook to alternative flights or request a refund.

‘We are looking into the communication and support from our ground handling provider at Malaga airport, as this is not the level of service we expect for our customers, and we are sorry for any confusion this caused.’