A BASILDON man has made it home to his family after being stranded abroad for weeks.

Jonty Edmondson finally managed to secure a flight home from Cyprus yesterday evening after four previous flights were cancelled.

The 20-year-old had flown to the country at the beginning of March for a pre-planned holiday.

However, following news that a passenger on his flight had tested positive for the coronavirus, he went into self-isolation as a precaution.

During this time, four different flights were cancelled that were meant to take him home to Basildon.

At one point last week, he was stranded at Paphos Airport with nowhere to go and very little money.

The Echo launched an appeal to help Mr Edmondson, and a family who saw this took him in.

Following his fourth cancelled flight, Mr Edmondson made an emotional plea for help from the British Embassy.

Finally, the CEO of easyJet arranged for two reparation flights to bring home British citizens yesterday following pressure from the embassy.

Mr Edmondson said: “The embassy reached out to me and because of the pressure to do something, because all the flights were being cancelled, they set up the two reparation flights before the whole fleet was grounded.

“It was a very full flight, it was the last one before they all are out of action for three or four months.”

Mr Edmondson is now back home with his girlfriend Natalia and one-year-old daughter Florence.

He added: “It’s such a relief to be honest, I’m so much happier to be home.

“They were very pleased to see me, and I was pleased to see them.

“I don’t think I will be going back there any time soon.

“Even when this all blows over, it was a very stressful experience, so I think I’ll be steering clear.

Easyjet have grounded all of their aircrafts from this week.

The airline, based in Luton, said parking all 344 of its planes “removes significant cost” as the aviation industry struggles to cope with a collapse in demand caused by the outbreak of the virus.

EasyJet insisted it “maintains a strong balance sheet” and revealed it is in “ongoing discussions with liquidity providers”.