The holiday company Tui is cancelling more than 180 flights from Manchester airport until the end of next month as half-term travel chaos continues unabated.
Tui said it was axing six flights a day at the hub from 31 May until 30 June, adding to the chaos facing passengers at airports this week as they battle lengthy queues and cancelled takeoffs.
Tui, which had already announced some flight cancellations and delays at the weekend, blamed “ongoing disruption in our operation at Manchester” for the “incredibly difficult decision” to cancel 43 flights a week.
Manchester airport said it was disappointed to see travellers’ holiday plans disrupted by the move, which it put down to staff shortages at Tui and its ground handler Swissport, which manages its check-in and baggage handling.
Izi Vasileva, who lives in London and works as an area manager in retail, had a seven-day break to Marrakech with a friend cancelled on Monday night. The 31-year-old said they arrived at Gatwick at 4pm for their flight but that it was delayed, cancelled and then the entire trip was called off.
“At around 5pm we found out the flight was cancelled, but there was no representative from Tui at the airport; nobody really seemed to know what was going on. We got some food and wandered around Gatwick before ending up at a hotel at 9pm to get a flight the next morning,” she said.
“At 11pm I received an email from Tui to say the flight next morning was cancelled and as a result my holiday package is cancelled. It was hard to hear as we booked this three years ago and it is frustrating because we have not heard anything more from Tui or received an apology. We are still so disappointed we are not going there.”
Ms Vasileva added that the holiday was meant to be a treat for her friend, an NHS nurse who, along with thousands of others, worked long hours during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic. She added that she would not book with Tui again because of the way the cancellation was handled.
Queues at Manchester airport. Tui announced on Monday a ‘small number’ of flight cancellations at the start of the half-term break. Photograph: Chris Price/PA
The transport minister, Andrew Stephenson, said on Tuesday that the government was working to minimise disruption for travellers after passengers at airports including Gatwick, Heathrow and Manchester reported significant delays.
He told Sky News the travel industry should have been better prepared for a surge in post-pandemic holidays, adding that the disruption was causing “a lot of distress” to those caught up in it.
Many Tui travellers bought their trips as a package, so would have had their whole holiday cancelled, not just the flight. Tui said it could not confirm the number of passengers affected, or how many holidays would be cancelled.
In a statement, Tui said: “We would like to apologise to our customers who have experienced flight delays and cancellations in recent days and understand that many of our customers have been looking forward to their holiday with us for a long time.”
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Manchester airport said: “We understand Tui’s difficult decision to cancel a number of services over the course of the next month, although we are obviously disappointed to see passengers’ plans disrupted in this way … In the meantime, we continue to advise passengers to arrive three hours before their flight and to be as prepared as they can be for their journey through the airport.”
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