It's all very well slagging off an airline when they delay a flight - or cancel. The latter being worse in some respect as they then just wash their hands whereas during a delay accommodation and refreshments are "usually" provided (no need for examples of where this isn't we all know not all operators play by the books)
The company I work for tried to sub charter last week to cover a tech aircraft overseas. Couldn't get an airframe from anywhere - they were all unavailable. Could this have been a similar problem for ASL/Thomson? Not the pax fault but may explain the time taken to get those pax to their destination.
Also I understand why they continued with DLM and CFU. Why delay a further 4 rotations and disrupt another 600? pax. FAO pax won't like it but operationally it made sense.
I wonder how many seats were available on routes from EDI, GLA & NCL that could have been utilised to get pax on their way.