TUI passengers outraged as airline cancels holiday after ‘8-hour wait’ by text

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TUI has reportedly cancelled flights through text after passengers waited eight hours at the airport.

Brits faced a four-hour wait to get through check-in and security, before another four-hour delay for the pilot.

The flight to Kos, out of Manchester Airport's Terminal 2, was supposed to take off at 3:45pm on Saturday May 28, reports MEN.

However, ticket holders would have missed the flight due to queues "out of the building" to check in.

Helen was travelling to the Greek hotspot with her husband and teenager daughter when the situation kicked off.

The family have been left appalled by the treatment.

She told the publication: "It's utter, utter chaos. There has been hardly any staff here.

"Everyone got a text from TUI saying their holidays have been cancelled and to go home."

She added: "The check-in girls knew nothing, we found out before they did.

"And they were left to deal with hundreds of passengers complaining, a full flight's worth.

"The police had to come in and make an announcement, a holiday maker was arrested and was in handcuffs.

"We have had to go back through security, show our passports, even though we'd never left the airport.

"I wouldn't expect this from Manchester Airport and certainly not from TUI. It's just disgusting."

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Another passenger due to fly on the same flight was George Sharp who hoped to travel from Bradford to Kos with his daughter.

He said: "It was like circumstances I've never ever heard of before.

"They went to board and then they cancelled not just the flight but the entire holiday.

"TUI staff refused to face up and the police arrived to tell them to go back through security to collect their bags and go home."

Jayesh Patel, from Manchester, was due to travel on the same flight to Kos with his wife and their three children.

He said: "We arrived at the airport three hours before our flight, as advised, and the queue for the baggage at T2 was all along the sky bridge up to terminal one.

"We got through security pretty quickly, but we only had about 20 minutes to go before our flight was due to fly.

"The first time we found out our flight had been delayed by another three hours was when we got to the departure lounge – at no stage did anyone tell us our flight was going to be delayed.

"At around 6pm, they gave us £5 vouchers to buy food but we've still got them as the shops were all so busy or had just began to close.

"At 7.48pm, we received a text to tell us our entire holiday had been cancelled. There was nobody at the airport to speak to, but there was a lot of upset and frustration as we all received the text at the same time."

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He continued: "We all then had to go back through passport control, which was ironic as we hadn't gone anywhere, and back into arrivals to wait for our luggage which was already on the plane.

"Because the airplane hadn't arrived from anywhere, our flight wasn't listed at any of the baggage carousels so we didn't know where to wait – people were visibly upset and children were crying.

"We then had to wait another couple of hours and at this point, we'd spent the whole day at the airport and just wanted to leave. "

Jayesh said all passengers were offered a full refund on their flights, including £350 in compensation and a £200 holiday voucher.

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A spokesperson for TUI said: "We would like to apologise for the inconvenience to our customers on flight TOM2680 from Manchester and Kos, on Saturday May 28 who were delayed to a combination of factors causing significant operational disruption.

"Unfortunately, we felt the impact to customers holiday was too great and took the difficult decision to cancel the flight.

"We contacted affected customers as soon as we became aware of the change and all customers will receive a full refund within 14 days.

"We understand how disappointing and frustrating this is and we do apologise for any inconvenience caused."

• TUI

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