TUI passengers at Bristol Airport were reportedly 'in tears' after their flight was delayed by more than 20 hours. Holidaymakers arrived at the airport yesterday (Saturday, June 18) hoping to jet off to Paphos at 1.35pm - but their flight was repeatedly pushed back until 9am this morning and they say they were put up in a hotel in Cardiff overnight.
One passenger, who preferred not to be named, says she arrived at the airport at 10am yesterday with her children. But the flight was delayed until 2.36pm, then 3pm, and then again until 4.20pm, before it was eventually pushed back to this morning.
She says they were given £8 per person food vouchers, but that there was no celiac food available at the airport for her child. She said her younger child slept on her lap until 10pm, when a taxi arrived to take them to Cardiff Clayton hotel.
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She said there were 'no staff to help' and that she tried to get hold of TUI on the phone and Facebook to no avail, with only "police to drip feed limited information". She added: "So many flights delayed yesterday and again today and no one from TUI on hand to offer assistance.
"(It's) disgraceful they take people's money and treat you like this," she said. She says she and her children had to get a 5.50am taxi from Cardiff back to Bristol Airport hoping to catch their flight, but she had still not boarded as of 9.45am.
At 10am she said they were on the bus to the plane, but that it had not set off at that point. During the time of writing, Bristol Airport's live departures board changed from 'gate closed' to 'departed' suggesting the plane had finally taken off by 11am.
Speaking at 10am, another passenger, Kirstie Smith, also said that there was "no communication" from anyone from TUI or from airport staff yesterday and "all we had was the police to help us". She said: "Elderly people [were] left stranded with no information.
"Families with children and babies also. Everyone left sat on the floor with not one bit of communication other than hotels are being sourced," she said. She added that as Bristol residents they wanted to go home overnight, but were told to stay as a group with the other passengers.
A text message from TUI sent to a passenger yesterday to apologise, seen by Bristol Live, gave a reason for the lengthy delays. The message said that the flight was stopped "due to operational disruption".
"Hotel accommodation and transport is currently being sourced with our ground handling agents," it added. However, some angry customers took to social media to vent about their experience.
One person tagged TUI in a post on Twitter which said: "Paphos by any chance? My daughter and bf are sat at the same gate, in tears bless her".
'Technical issue'
A spokesperson for the airline said: "We’d like to apologise to customers travelling on TOM6676 from Bristol Airport to Paphos which was unfortunately delayed due to a technical issue. We can confirm this flight has now departed and is scheduled to land in Paphos this afternoon.
"We aim to communicate with customers as quickly as we can if there are any changes to their holiday and offer transport, overnight accommodation, meals and refreshments as needed. We understand that last minute delays and cancellations are incredibly disappointing and would like to reassure customers that we do everything we can to get them away on their holidays as planned.
"We’d like to apologise again for the inconvenience passengers travelling to Paphos experienced and we thank them for their understanding."
