Originally Posted by
Mr @ Spotty M
My guess is that there will be a number of holiday makers being driven from there planned departure airport to one of the three airports in use, unless there holiday has been cancelled.
My belief is all TUI has to do is get you to your booked accommodation for the dates booked, how they get you there and back is up to them.
I also think this may happen as it would seem silly to cancel existing bookings when they so desperately need that custom. I hope they at least prioritise giving those with existing bookings at other bases the choice to move (or rather, agree to being bussed) to one of the "big 3" bases before they put the flights on sale to the masses without informing said customers who may then find the flights all fully booked.
Obviously it will be inconvenient for both passenger and airline to travel potentially hundreds of miles to an alternative base but if customers are willing then it would seem the best option. If they only operate the flights for LGW/MAN/BHX pax, there will be significant under-utilisation of fleet so by operating more (or larger) flights from these bases including the displaced pax they'd be making more money and keeping everyone a bit happier. However, they will obviously need to ensure they can cover this in terms of staffing (surely they will?).
If they manage to make at least a reasonably good job of that then they'd impress customers and they'd be more likely to book again. Cancelling people's flights/holidays simply because they booked from a smaller base would inevitably leave many with a sour taste (certainly true for myself with a booking around 4 weeks from now).