I should have thought that was obvious; Brexit. What used to be possible is now very much less so.

Boa Vista diversion into Tenerife 29th May
 

Hi does anyone know the reason for the Boa Vista to Manchester diverting to Tenerife last night please?

cockpit display malfunction according to a hotel group I’m in and a passenger on the flight .

Looks like Summer 23 hasn’t had a great start again for TUI. Tech issues, delays (some of them 24 hrs +) and further aircraft brought into cover.

I know this is just the start and things may improve but if they don’t, how long can this go on for? Last year was terrible and it must have cost a small fortune. It isn’t sustainable or profitable long term.

It's certainly nowhere near as bad as last year but I agree it seems to be same s**t different year.

Lots of aircraft on later than usual maintenance slots, later returns from Canada, 3rd parties doing what 3rd parties do, lack of organisation, lack of staff in certain areas of the business. Aircraft being damaged by inexperienced ground crew. Spares availability on some fleets. The list could go on.

Despite numerous "summer 23 readiness" projects nothing seems to have really changed as such. I'm amazed that some of the senior management team's heads haven't rolled yet, as theres little confidence in them internally.

Am just hoping they're getting over the hump and things will improve from here.

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https://www.edinburghlive.co.uk/news...plane-27028590

My work colleague was on this flight. The flight was delayed first by an intoxicated woman saying she had lost her passport. It went out to runway and then came back to the terminal first to refuel as it missed the slot. Then the plane departed but returned due to being overweight with fuel.

My work colleague had to wait all night in the terminal as TUI claimed no hotels available. They were then sent home as they were due to go on a cruise and TUI said they were unable to get them to the cruise ship as it had left already. There were only two Swissport reps at the airport who did not have a clue what they were doing and how to handle the situation. Edinburgh airport managers actually pleaded with them to complain to TUI as the airport is fed up with the airline and the issues already this summer.

to make matters worse, the plane later departed a few hours after landing back to Aberdeen, perfectly serviceable.

Tui’s biggest problem to me seems to be the over reliance on 3rd parties. However given the size they are now what is the alternative?

Jet2 are the benchmark in customer service because by and large their ground service team work for the company so know the ramifications if things go wrong.

I hate to say this and I hope that it’s not the case but TUI seem to not be able to get their ducks in a row, and the decision making to outsource to ACMI providers who by and large don’t know their backside from their elbow, it all smacks of the last few years of TCX when they were trying to sort everything out.

I’m not saying TUI will go for the same reasons but if you can’t service what you have yourself reliably, relying on the likes of Smartlynx and Avion is not the way to go. Look at Jet2 again, Smartlynx let them down last summer so they sort alternative providers this year.

In no way am I a jet2 fanboy but the decision making on a business and customer service level is to be applauded especially compared to TUI.

Unfortunately these things happen. Sadly passengers are often the cause of delays. The aircraft then returned because it had a technical problem, not because it had too much fuel. However, it did land overweight so it is not unusual for the fire service to inspect the brakes. Once these things happen it is often difficult to predict how long rectification might take or how long it might take to source an alternative aircraft. Sometimes the decisions taken often don’t work as expected. Presumably it departed later because someone carried out the required maintenance actions. I hope TUI have made contact to offer suitable compensation.

I’m sure an expert will be able to enlighten us on this issue. I’m not pilot but it sounds quite unusual to me and that they probably were being very cautious, given the aircraft positioned up to ABZ not long after. It doesn’t really surprise me though given the flight was operated by Sunwing.

I think this may be the last year of Sunwing ops for TUI given the WestJet acquisition but I’m not sure. If so, I have no idea how they plan to replace the capacity (especially given their growth plans for S24) but I’ve long felt that the sooner they ditch the Sunwing arrangement, the better. The Sunwing flights seem to be plagued with all sorts of issues year after year and the associated customer service from TUI often seems to be pretty dire.

I’m by no means a TUI basher. I actually flew with them just last month out of Glasgow and, other than poor legroom on the MAX (although this varied by row!), I was pretty impressed. Flights on time (or time made up) in both directions and nothing really to complain about. We had a minor delay on the return leg due to issues at the departure airport and the Captain made an appearance in the cabin to make an announcement, explaining and apologising. The FO also greeted us on the steps as we boarded the aircraft and gave very detailed briefings re the details of the flight. Really great service in my opinion!

However, EDI is my local airport and, truth is, we only flew TUI from GLA because we had vouchers and flight times were good. Previously we regularly flew TUI from EDI but now the base is closed, we’d be less likely to use them on the whole as GLA is significantly further away. Given the Sunwing ops, I’d actively avoid any TUI flight from EDI. That may seem a bit extreme but I’ve seen this kind of shambles happen too many times to risk it, especially for a cruise holiday (which is now the only reason they fly from EDI).

It did actually return due to a fuel weight issue. The aircraft took off and was unable to reach the cruising altitude so circled and returned to Edinburgh. My work colleague has still not received a refund for the cancelled holiday so was unable to book a last minute trip following these events as they had already taken time off work for the holiday. TUI did not provide any updates to passengers during the night at the airport.

Was all over mainstream press, some of which im sure had some accuracy. What theory did you have as an alternative?
https://www.edinburghlive.co.uk/news...eadmore-target

Generally I don't associate a 'Reach' publication with 'accuracy', their online clickbait stories are generally just that; stories!

Very occasionally I have taken off with too much fuel but the solution has not been to land back but to fly to destination at high speed, low level, a longer route or a combination of all three. The true story has definitely been lost in translation.

The positioning of 787s between bases continues to baffle me - today TUIC moves from BHX to MAN wile TUIE comes up from LGW to BHX. Both appear to be scheduled on long haul flights so why not just move TUIE from LGW to MAN? It someone in the know could enlighten me because I’m genuinely intrigued as to the reasons why.

Also looks like short haul configuration 787 aircraft G-TUID needs to go in for some maintenance as Monday’s 787 Short/midhaul flights are being operated by AirTanker A330 from BHX

They also appear to be a 738 short at BHX as well with ACMI GetJet doing some flights too

I think G-TUID is being pinched to operate out of Manchester in place of 767 G-OBYF which has been at Luton since the 31st May having work done on it!

Given the operational issues and reliance on third party operators as per usual with TUI, how on earth are they going to secure an extra 1.1 million seats for Summer 24 as announced previously? Clearly just a reaction to Jet2, but how many new MAX's are they expecting to get by then to deliver a net gain to their fleet, or will it be yet again more reliance on third party operators? If the latter, I wish them good luck!

If this a sample of sub chartering then I guess many won't be using TUI for their holidays.

Freebird

or using Simple Flying for aviation information. Why is what purports to be a specialist aviation website 'cutting and pasting' a local newspaper report with no additional insight? Click bait maybe?