Travel chaos has been reported at airports across the UK this week, with hundreds of flights cancelled
Hundreds of flights due to take off from Manchester Airport will be cancelled by travel operator TUI next month – causing yet more disruption for Brits who were hoping to head abroad.
Around 43 flights will be cancelled each week in June, the company said, in a bid to prevent more chaos which passengers have recently faced at terminals across the country.
It comes amid travel chaos across UK airports, with a number of airlines cancelling flights. On Saturday, police officers were drafted in to break the bad news to TUI customers that their holiday had been cancelled.
The TUI cancellations will affect nearly 200 flights, all of which were due to depart from Manchester Airport. For now, all other TUI flights at other airports will operate as normal.
No airport or @TUIUK staff on hand, the police read out a statement on their behalf. From this point it took another 2 hrs to get our bags back as we were left stranded in baggage reclaim with no staff to advise us what was happening 2/3 pic.twitter.com/idn9uG5X49
— Jayesh Patel ☔️ (@smurfyhelp_jay) May 29, 2022
A statement from TUI said: “Due to the amount of on-going disruption in our operation at Manchester Airport, we have made the incredibly difficult decision to cancel six flights a day (43 flights a week), from Tuesday 31st May until Thursday 30th June. All other airports in the UK are planned to operate as normal.
“We understand how disappointing this will be for those impacted; however, we believe this is necessary to provide stability and a better customer service at Manchester Airport.
“We will continue to work closely with all our airport partners and suppliers so we can provide the best possible holiday experience for our customers.”
5 hrs in Manchester airport yesterday, 10 hrs today and 2 cancelled flights. Get to a hotel before TUI tell us by text the holiday is cancelled. Spineless company and their directors should be ashamed of themselves! Where’s the apology in person? #tui
— Michael Palmer 💙 (@mickyp1971) May 30, 2022
TUI customers affected by the flight cancellations will receive a full refund for their holiday, the company said, as well as an extra gesture of goodwill.
The statement said: “Customers impacted in the next 14 days will also receive information on how to apply for compensation in line with regulations. We would like to reassure our customers that we cancellations of this nature are extremely rare and would like to thank them for their patience and understanding.”
The unfortunate news comes amid travel chaos not only in Manchester but across the country.
A lovely holiday to #stansted airport today. It took 2 hrs to check in with #TUI, arrived at the gate to be told we would be delayed by 1hr. 2 hrs later we were bussed back to collect our bags and told by text message our entire holiday was cancelled. #TUI #shambles pic.twitter.com/Yz67X2dSwj
— Anna Saunders (@AnnaSaunders) May 28, 2022
Passengers heading to major UK airports for half term this week have faced delays and cancellations – sometimes just as they were about to board the plane.
Gatwick has seen the most cancellations, followed by Manchester, iNews reports. Flights have also been grounded at Luton and Belfast, with huge queues forming at Dublin Airport.
Some have been forced to queue through the night – with check-in staff providing duvets to sleep on the terminal floors, according to The Mail Online . Passengers have even reported passing out while waiting hours for baggage – some of which never turned up.
Other airlines have also been forced to scrap scheduled flights the week. British Airways is cutting more than 100 flights every day as part of its pre-planned reduction in services, while EasyJet cancelled over 200 flights last week as a result of IT problems. Barcelona, Madrid, Prague and Valencia were amongst a number of destinations to which EasyJet cancelled services.
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