Furious families were left devastated as TUI cancelled their entire holiday after they had already boarded the plane. The shocking scenes happened on a flight due to depart to Tenerife from Cardiff Airport at 1.25pm on Tuesday.
After boarding, the plane passengers were told it had a malfunctioning part. But they were staggered to then receive text messages and emails saying the whole holiday was off.
TUI blamed the debacle on "operational and supply chain issues", plus an the influx of people going on holiday at this time of year. It has announced that all affected passengers will get compensation and an "extra gesture of goodwill" from the company, WalesOnline reports.
Huw Davies, from Porthcawl, was on the plane with 11 other family members as they looked forward to a "special holiday" for his daughter, who is terminally ill. He was left stunned by the sudden cancellation, saying he was "absolutely devastated" and his children and grandchildren were in tears.
"This was a family outing for my daughter who has terminal cancer. It was going to be her last family holiday - and we just got booted off this flight," said the 59-year-old.
"I think it's a load of b****** that they've said the engine went down, because that plane had flown in from Alicante. If this part was obviously malfunctioning on the way into the airport, why the hell did they load us? Why did they go through the motions? They knew that that plane wasn't going to take off."
Mr Davies said he first learnt of the flight's cancellation through other passengers on the plane who had received emails, but he said he has yet to receive one. "I've phoned TUI's headquarters and a message comes straight down the line that they're dealing with this and we'd be contacted. So they knew that they were going to cancel this flight and several round the country," he said.
He described how passengers were told disembark, before being taken into the airport terminal and told somebody from TUI would turn up to face them. "But it wasn't. It was a woman from [another] travel agency," said Huw, adding that the representative told them the cancellation was due to the malfunctioning part.
He said the police were present in case things had "kicked off". He said: "[TUI's policy] is that they're supposed to supply another flight. We had it in black and white and showing them."
He said that his son had booked the trip as a surprise for his daughter. Mr Davies said: "It was a special holiday and to make it worse, we asked my daughter where she wanted to go, because she's recently lost her mother. She wanted to go back to where we took my wife on holiday for the first time."
He said the family paid around £9,000 for the trip, not including all the fees for other travel related costs. "We're all out of pocket," he said. "We've put our good faith into these people who should have transported us to our destination by other means and they haven't had the decency to do this."
The cancellation comes after aviation data firm Cirium said 291 departures from major UK airports have been cancelled between May 25 and Tuesday. TUI announced it will cancel around six flights at Manchester Airport every day until the end of June. Police were even called in to tell angry TUI holidaymakers at the airport to go home after a flight they'd already waited eight hours for had been cancelled.
A spokesperson for TUI UK said: "We’d like to apologise to customers travelling on flight TOM6286 from Cardiff to Tenerife which was unfortunately cancelled due to operational issues. Customers affected by flight cancellations will receive a full refund for their holiday within 14 days.
"The May half-term holidays are always an incredibly busy period with many customers looking to get away, and we understand that they will have been looking forward to these holidays for a long time.
"While flight delays and cancellations with us are rare, unfortunately the increase in people going on holidays combined with various operational and supply chain issues, has meant that a small number of our flights have been impacted. Our teams have been working tirelessly to support affected customers, through direct communications and providing overnight accommodation and transfers where needed, as well as meals and refreshments.
"We continue to work closely with our airport partners to monitor the situation and provide the best possible holiday experience for our customers. We’d like to thank them for their patience and understanding at this time.”
Cardiff Airport has also been contacted for comment.
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