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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
National
Antony Thrower

TUI passengers sent from Norwich to London and back again delayed for 30 hours

Passengers set to fly out to Rhodes endured a Greek tragedy when their flight out was delayed for nearly 30 hours.

The holidaymakers were scheduled to leave from Norwich on Wednesday when their Tui flight was delayed until 10.30pm, when it was cancelled altogether.

They were then told their plane was leaving from Gatwick and so boarded coaches for an overnight stay near Crawley, West Sussex, rather than the holiday isle.

The next morning the firm then told them their plane was ready - but was back in Norwich.

Passenger Mark Overton, who was travelling with his wife and two children, told Norwich Evening News : “As you can imagine, people are very upset and tired after a delay of more than 24 hours.

Passengers queue to board the bus as they travel between Norfolk and Gatwick Airport (Mark Overton)
The passengers finally made it on holiday 30 hours later (Mark Overton)

"There were some seriously distressing scenes at the airport on Wednesday night, particularly people going out for a honeymoon.

"The thing that shocked me is the lack of information coming from people at the airport and the lack of TUI reps.”

The flight eventually left 26 hours after it was originally scheduled, sparking fury among those who lost a day of their holiday.

Their nightmare was not over however as they were also delayed on their way home, this time by three and a half hours.

Tui apologised and offered to refund holidaymakers the cost of one night of their holiday.

Mark Overton and his family spoke of their frustration (Mark Overton)

Earlier this month furious passengers allegedly tried to rip open a door to get their luggage after a 12- hour nightmare.

TUI customers snapped at Birmingham Airport after a nightmare wait for their luggage after returning from a four hour flight from Turkey - which was diverted 150 miles to the Midlands.

After finally landing at 3am Catherine Arnold and her partner Tom faced another four-hour wait for their luggage to be unloaded and then grab another transport back to Norwich.

Police were called in to calm tempers while some desperate to get home even resorted to booking taxis despite the distance involved, BirminghamLive reports.

TUI admitted it had let down passengers after a video of the incident circulated online.

Catherine Arnold, 40, said some passengers were left sleeping on the floor, while some even tried to force open a door to fetch their own luggage after growing tired of waiting.

She said: "We were already delayed by over four hours by the time we got on the flight,"

TUI said passengers on the TOM713 were entitled to claim EU 261 compensation and would receive an extra gesture of goodwill for their inconvenience. The airline said an investigation would be carried out into the precise cause of the delays.

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