A group of 30 people missed their flight to Dubai on Monday after getting caught in a traffic jam that turned a 20-minute journey into a 90-minute nightmare.

Lara Grima Baldacchino recounted how she and her family eventually abandoned their taxi in Mqabba and ran to the airport but still didn't make it in time.

“It was literally standstill for over an hour, it was very shocking," she wrote on Facebook.

Maltese Roads Traffic Updates said the main road to Ħal Farruġ was closed following an oil spill, which may have accounted for the traffic delay. However a PN MP said the traffic congestion in the south of the island showed road widening projects had "failed miserably".

Grima Baldacchino, who lives in Siġġiewi, said her family left home at 5pm to be at the airport by 5.20pm, giving them enough time to check-in before their flight with Turkish Airways departed for Dubai at 7.55pm. 

Part of Lara Grima Baldacchino's Facebook post Source: Facebook

En route, the family encountered a "national crisis", she wrote, describing how all the roads leading to the airport were at a complete standstill. 

“After an hour and a half in the taxi we decided to abandon the taxi in Mqabba as traffic wasn’t moving and run it all the way to the airport with all our 23 kilo luggage and hand luggage in all that crazy traffic jam. I cannot even begin to explain how exhausting this was.”

She said she saw "scores" of other people doing the same, including 25 others on her own flight.  

“Some were on our flight and some on others. Many others also abandoned their taxis to walk to the airport,” she said.

By the time they arrived at the airport, the check-in desk was closed. Turkish Airlines closes its check-in desks an hour before flights. 

She said the news left her and the other passengers "devastated".

“The airline could have easily taken us and the other passengers left behind especially with the oil spill crisis, and huge traffic jams all over the news. We weren’t late because of our negligence. We were late because we could not get to the airport.”

Toni Bezzina, a PN MP, also shared a picture of people walking towards the airport carrying their luggage.

“Road widening projects, which are costing us millions, as we have long predicted, have unfortunately failed and failed miserably,” he said. 

Turkish Airways offered the Grima Baldacchino family a later flight but their PCR tests would have expired and they did not have time for another test.  She said the airline has provided them an open ticket until May 2022.