I noticed that TUI have cancelled holidays to Italy until 15th August but holidays with partner airlines are still operating

Cancelled "Lakes & Mountains holidays to the below destinations due to depart on or before 15 August 2021:

• Austria

• Slovenia

• Italy (flying with TUI Airways – holidays including flights with our partner airlines are still operating)"

Seems a bit strange, cancelling some holidays, but only if they are TUI Airways.

Are those partner airlines prepared to give back the money that TUI has/will pay ? If not, is TUI prepared to give a 100% refund to the person who booked the holiday, while still being contractually bound to pay the airfare to the partner airline ?

Austria and Italy have both pretty much banned the entry of tourists coming from the UK for the time being.
If I had a flight booked from London to Verona with Ryanair... I would expect Ryanair to still run the flight and keep the money on the basis that a seat was available to me if I had turned up at the airport... the fact that I would have to spend 5 days in quarantine and ruin a holiday would be something Ryanair would tell me to take up with the Italian Govt

Notice that TUI have cut capacity for the rest of the summer from the UK. They have said something along the lines of while the UK usually accounts for the greater proportion of summer customers the European countries are leading the way with more flexible travel policies putting the British off travelling.

On a different note, G-TUKF arrived at Newcastle this week. All white. Is it for storage or will
it be used on some of the limited summer program
shortly?

Storage, I understand

Guardian - TUI slashes flights
Are TUI feeling the pinch more than most? With rumours of more announcements and all these cancellations, even if you so want to travel you might think twice?
A friend was on a Greek flight, Crete I think, and said it was only a 1/3 full.
Presumably theres only so long that can be sustained.
The TUI cruise side of things presumably shelved in US while transatlantic showing no sign of movement.

I’d say that flying a much reduced schedule is probably better than flying the regular schedule with half empty planes. That’s what costs money.

Sensible move if you ask me.

Tui also have a slight advantage in that the European side of things is operating at a higher percentage of its schedule than its UK counterpart and has been for some time. The UK gov have done a grand job of "allowing" travel yet making it perilous to do so.

Id agree with pamann, no point in operating a full schedule if the planes are going a quarter full. Batten down the hatches and hope 22 is more back to normal.

Looking at the loads across a number of airlines, I’d say TUI are suffering less than most.

An example being Bristol to Ibiza today:

TOM6696: 143/189
LS1835: 75/189
EZY6087: 58/186

Emphasis on “suffering less” rather than doing better. A Saturday in August should be full across the board.

Friend of the family (from Suffolk) was transferred to Bristol at short notice with cancellation of the London flight (not sure if LGW or STN). They cancelled instead. So that could account for TUI high load, but consolidating not necessarily good for business. Now flying Jet2 instead.

Think it's a common issue - Jet2 and TUI also doing a lot of double dropping

The aticle says it has had double the number of early bookings for 2022 as it did at pre pandemic levels, which is positive. However, I do believe we will still have the same traffic light system in place in another 12 months, so anything could happen.

Double-dropping isn’t such an issue I’d have thought. Getting someone to drive 4-5 hours is something else!

I agree but think it’s more fundamental and unless the testing regime loosens up next year will be the same. The majority of families will not take the risk of the 2 day pre-departure test when abroad. All holiday you have hanging over you the prospect of testing positive and having to stay in a dodgy foreign quarantine hotel. Bring in the fact that you have to pay a few £’000 for this holiday and thenmore for quarantine it’s too risky

id happily quarantine at home but not abroad.

AirportPlanner1

My point was plenty of half full flights.

TUI reporting cash flow positive as well.

Is anyone else?

TUI is in one of the better (or least-worst) positions.

I agree about people can’t be bothered with going away on holiday this year. That is exactly me!

GBYAJ

My view entirely and I suspect millions of others too

Surely if in twelve months time we still have the traffic light system and testing there won’t be much left of the industry!

Tui is doing pretty well tbh.

The fact that we are a huge company and have markets in many European countries has massively spread the risk and exposure to covid. Tui as a group have also been well supported by the German government.

Tui airways is one of the only U.K. airlines that haven’t made any pilot redundancies during covid and are actually still promoting people at the moment.

There’s even talk of recruiting next year.

The Tui flights I’ve been on (operating) have all had decent loads and we’re adding new routes all the time.

I know pprune is often synonymous with complaining but in Tui (U.K. anyway) the atmosphere is pretty great and we (from the guys I speak to) feel really lucky we have been so well looked after and the outlook is very positive.

It is really disappointing to note that the media is obsessing about the price of PCR tests for travel rather than the justification for requiring them at all. They're allegedly necessary to detect new Covid variants slipping in to the UK, but in order for that to be achieved positive tests must be sequenced. We know that is only happening in around 5% of cases, so the reality is that they are utterly useless for the purpose of detecting new variants. However, what they are really useful for is allowing politicians to pretend to have opened up air travel to and from the UK whilst in reality raising the barrier so high that few can risk / afford to do so. I also suspect that the anti-carbon zealots may have a hand in keeping this nonsense going.

I recently received a promotion from Air Baltic. Short break in Riga with return flights from MAN plus decent hotel £175. I was seriously tempted until I factored in the costs of PCR tests, the time / hassle factor, and particularly that exciting day when you would wander round Riga searching for a Covid testing clinic where English is understood - because my Latvian isn't great. Maybe not! And this thought process is inhibiting travel to so many destinations. One might consider it worthwhile for two weeks in Spain with local testing available in a large hotel complex with no language barrier. But as for the short breaks market - it has been annihilated. Totally impractical.

The time has come for the industry at large to get together and DEMAND a complete end to PCR testing requirements for travel. We could live with lateral flow tests for red list with PCR follow-up for those testing positive. Everything else is pure 'Covid Theatre', and it is decimating the UK travel industry as long as it persists. Only the UK government is persisting with this nonsense, and we know that they have fallen into the grip of green zealots with an alternative agenda, from the PM's wife downwards. As Rahm Emmanuel famously said: "Never let a good crisis go to waste!"

Well said ozzyozborn.