It was second on there is another repatriation flight in a couple days

It keeps getting pushed further and further back, when will it end ? My holiday 23rd June was cancelled a while back, still have not heard from them with a refund voucher ? They say they will contact us within 28 days of departure date, guess that will be within 28 days after the departure date ? Hoping their stores will open soon 15th June in England ? Probably later up here in Scotland. Waiting it out to re-book for next year, thats assuming the world still exists ?

Assume it’s because the three week review on quarantine is not until 29th so would leave little time if air bridges are not secure if starting holidays on the 1st? Same with Jet2 with 15th now.

The other thing that has been pointed out with Tui and Jet2 when they start operating again is the huge logistical operation in getting staff out to resort especially when you consider some of the Tui/ First choice Family resorts have over 50 UK staff in each hotel.
Normally it would be more staggered with some going out one day and then more the next day using EZY and other low cost carriers
I know some First Choice entertainment staff have been told that they need to be ready to fly from 4th July onwards and that flights would likely be from central location like Gatwick, Birmingham and Manchester and then guests would start arriving a week later.

Makes sense, especially if the June 29th air bridges turns out to be true.

From Travel Weekly
Spain is not discussing a travel corridor with Britain and favours a pan-European reopening of tourism, according to reports.
Reuters quoted a source in the Spanish Foreign Ministry as saying: “Spain has called for a common (European Union-wide) approach to opening the borders. If this is not done, it will establish its own criteria.”
This might be an issue for the possible air bridges.

There was a suggestion earlier in the week that the PM wants an EU agreement on an Air Bridge (plus Singapore, Australia and Dubai)

It makes sense but the EU nations are currently all doing differing things, Portugal and Italy are very much against quarantine as "enemies of tourism" I think the Germans and Croatians will have us without quarantine whereas Greece, Cyprus and Spain are debating what to do and hoping our rates keep falling.

The French are tit for tat quarantining us and the Spanish all be it a "voluntary quarantine" which seems even more pointless than ours!

Whereas Denmark don't want anyone bar their close neighbours (except Sweden) until the end of the summer.

So getting an agreement for Europe as a whole despite Spain and the EU leadership wanting it seems a big ask! The Greek Islands are worried without the UK they will be decimated for example as will many Spanish resorts so I guess most will let us in if assurances and the infection rates keep dropping by July.

Will TOM need to do much SIM checks etc before taking to the skies again - not sure on the rules for CC ?

The pilots are all being rostered a sim session either this month or next to get them current again. There’s a CAA approved alternative training program which will ensure everyone (including cc) are current for the restart.

I have noticed many shuffling of fleets & circuits being flown from time to time by Ryanair, easyJet & Jet2. However, I have seen barely any TUI UK movements, certainly no circuit flying. Will this make it more difficult / longer for TUI UK to get back up to speed?

No....TUI UK are carrying out Boeing active storage checks which don't involve flying the aircraft!

So I have had the email confirmation this morning to confirm that my Tui flights to Cyprus are now going to be operated by SmartLynx on an A320, There is no mention of the extra legroom seats that I have booked though so does this mean that SmartLynx will reconfigure the aircraft so that their A320 will have more legroom in the first 5-6 rows ?

737James, dream on :(

Mr@ Spotty M- Do i need to call them to find out whats happening then ? I have noticed that they are still selling the extra legroom ( Not EM Exit seat) also they still say flight is with Tui.

Before I speak to Tui does anybody know if there are any plans to have SmartLynx aircrfat based at EMA as dont want to change from BHX to then find I am no better off

I would wait a little while until operations actually start again as then there will be more certainty about the flying program. If you change your plans now you might find circumstances dictate changes to the flying program which might affect your trip. On a positive note TUI Germany have restarted operations to Palma today.

I’d say it’s very unlikely. EMA is pretty much always 3x738, and they tend to keep ACMI ops to their larger bases for the most part (MAN/LGW/BHX).

When is your flight?

I'd be highly surprised to see ANY acmi ops this year for anyone

Funniest post I've read in days! You'll be lucky to have serviceable aircraft, let alone extra legroom seats!

Thank You for all the replies, The flight is due to be at the start of September BHZ-PFO and I have had the joy of spending over 3 hours on the phone to Tui and have been given lots of incorrect telephone numbers and email address all very annoying.

I have asked to switch to EMA flights but have been told it will be an extra £800 which is crazy as still the same dates, hotel, room type and possibly even transfers as inbound flight is just 20 mins later. I have been advised by two different people that at Tui call centre that the SmartLynx aircraft will 100% have the extra legroom seats in the first 5 rows. So I have made a GDPR request for the calls so if they don't i have some evidence to take up a complaint.

Looking through online reports SmartLynx do look rather poor with old, broken aircraft which suffer frequent delays. I am rather surprised that Tui have taken the decision to use them but maybe they are cheap.

Its the BHX based Tui flightdeck crew that are the winners with this as its two PFO and a LCA deep nights each week that they will not be getting on the roster, although at present many would jump at the chance to get back to work