A holiday in Thailand has turned into a nightmare for a Malmesbury family, who are stranded in Bangkok following the volcanic ash flight ban.

Stephanie and Mike Whateley, along with their adult children Laura and Tom, were due to fly back to the UK with British Airways on April 19, but after all flights to and from the UK were cancelled when the country was covered by a cloud of volcanic ash.

The family has now been told the next available replacement flight with BA will not be until May 12, and they are stranded in a politically unstable Bangkok indefinitely.

Speaking from Thailand Mrs Whateley, a teaching assistant at Malmesbury Primary School, said: "Words cannot really describe how fed up we are.

"We stayed with a friend in Bangkok, but she had to go away so we headed out of the city as the centre is not a good place to be.

"We are in an ok hotel and have heard that British Airways have a duty of care, but that remains to be seen.

"I find it hard to be polite about BA - basically they abandoned us and we have had a nightmare trying to get home."

Mrs Whateley's sister Verity Walker is now doing all she can to try to bring her relatives home - she has emailed British Airways CEO Willie Walsh and copied in MPs Charles Kennedy and James Gray.

"We are definitely not happy to stay here," Mrs Whateley said. "I should be at Malmesbury Primary School, where I work as a teaching assistant, and my daughter is also assistant head of a primary in London.

"We also have other important commitments that we are missing.

"Our booking agent has been trying hard to get us home and we have the chance of flights on Monday and Thursday, but we will have to pay for the pleasure of actually going home.

"The first free flights for us from BA would be on May 12."

BA today denied it was profiteering by offering flights at inflated prices rather than using them to bring stranded passengers home. Some passengers, including the Whateley's have complained that BA appears to be selling empty seats to new passengers on earlier flights - but BA said these were being offered at very high prices to keep them empty on its computer booking system, so the stranded passengers can be slotted in.