A mum was left "emotionally drained" when her family holiday turned into a nightmare after a 32-hour delay.
Kate Tynan and her family were meant to fly from Manchester Airport to Crete on Sunday, May 29. They boarded the TUI plane on time but they sat on the runway for close to four hours before things got worse.
As Kate, her husband and two children waited on board the flight, the pilot announced there was a delay, as a shortage of baggage handlers meant the plane had not been fully loaded. However, once all the bags were on the plane, the aircraft crew could no longer fly due to flight time limitations, reports the M.E.N.
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The family – Kate, 44, Ben, 45, Noah, 10 and Martha, eight – were then escorted off the plane and back to departures, where they claim they were left for two hours with no information or a TUI rep in sight. Kate eventually received an email to say the flight had been cancelled and rescheduled to the following afternoon.
The family collected their bags and returned home to Marple, Stockport. Returning to Manchester Airport the following day, they arrived early to give themselves the best chance of boarding the flight.
They told the M.E.N there would be a dedicated check-in desk for their flight – but there wasn’t. Despite staff having “no idea” about the rescheduled flight and it being oversold, the family managed to get checked in. After numerous delays, they then boarded the new flight. While onboard, a co-pilot began loading baggage onto the aircraft as there was no ground crew to do so.
The plane eventually took off almost three hours after its scheduled departure. When the family arrived in Crete capital Heraklion, one suitcase didn’t show up – and another was soaked inside after being left on the tarmac in the rain.
Kate, who runs her own wedding cake business called 'Little Button Bakery’, said: “I felt extremely disappointed in TUI and the total lack of any empathy for their customers and all of the families who desperately wanted to take their children on holiday this half term.
“When the plane eventually took off, everyone cheered. I cried – I was so emotional. I'd not slept the night before worrying if I was going to have to tell my children they couldn't go on holiday anymore.
“We didn't arrive at the hotel until gone midnight last night in the end. My children were hungry and exhausted. I felt emotionally drained. I'm so pleased we are here but I feel absolutely awful for those families who aren't. And they could have got on that plane.
“TUI are disgusting! Total Utter Incompetence should be their tagline! They most certainly do not put 'you' in the middle. They are driven by greed and do not care one bit about the people who have paid them thousands of pounds to go away this half-term.
“This is the most expensive holiday we've ever paid for. But we saved up hard to go on it. It cost almost £8k. I feel robbed of the first few days of it by TUI and I still feel upset now. I think it will take me a few days to feel ok about the whole experience.”
In a statement, TUI said: “We’re incredibly sorry to those customers who have been impacted by the recent disruption to our operations. We understand that last minute delays and cancellations are incredibly disappointing and we would like to reassure our customers that we are doing everything we can to get them on holiday as planned.
“Whilst every delay and cancellation is regrettable, the vast majority of our flights are operating as planned, with more than 26,000 customers taking off yesterday on holiday. We’d like to apologise again for the inconvenience caused and we thank customers for their understanding.”
A spokesperson for Swissport, a ground handling company, said: “We know that people are really excited to go on holiday again after long periods without flying during the pandemic. We’re really sorry about the experience these passengers had on this flight and we’re looking into the specific circumstances to understand what went wrong.
“The post-pandemic return in travel demand is positive news but the current peak travel period is exacerbating resource challenges across the recovering aviation industry. We are working hard to address our resource challenges and have hired 2,800 new colleagues since the start of the year. We will continue to work with our partners to find solutions for this industry-wide issue.”
