An 84-year-old woman was flown to Malta from Manchester instead of Athens last month in an error by budget airline Easyjet, The Independent (UK) has reported.

The newspaper said the woman, who has mobility issues and does not speak English, was booked to fly from Manchester to Athens with Easyjet on May 18. Her luggage was flown to Athens.

The woman, who was in a wheelchair, followed the crowd when she realised no-one was going to take her to her plane.

Two Easyjet flights, to Malta and Athens, were due to depart within 10 minutes from adjacent gates. Their numbers were 1997 and 1947 respectively. The woman, Argyro Aretaki mistakenly joined the queue for the Malta flight and she was allowed on the jet bound for Malta even though her boarding pass showed a different destination.

Once on the plane, her assigned seat was occupied and she showed her boarding pass to the cabin crew who directed her to another seat, her son told the newspaper.

Her non-appearance on the Athens flight went unnoticed.

“In contravention of security rules, the plane took off with her case in the hold.”

Her son told The Independent: “My mother was not aware that she was in Malta rather than Athens… But when no-one was at the airport to collect her she realised that something was wrong. She became very distressed until another airport user took her to the information centre.”

Her son was contacted by airport staff in Malta and he called the airline’s customer service.

He then contacted his sister, who was waiting at Athens airport, and asked her to try to track down her mother’s baggage.

He said that although there was a direct flight that night from Malta to Athens, his mother was sent back to Manchester. She finally flew to Athens two days after her first attempt.

A spokesperson for Easyjet told the newspaper that the procedures in place for boarding passengers with reduced mobility were not followed.