Flights go on sale this thursday for departure dates up to 1st September 2024

What happened with BY490 LGW - NBE on the 11/9/2023. Was this originally a tech delay on G-Tawk which extended and would have put crew out of hours even though they had a replacement a/f G-Tawp causing an 11 hour departure delay. Was finding another crew part of the problem?

Any info on what happened with TUID last night? Seems to have gone from BHX to PFO and not returned. Sadly that was our ride to Tenerife early this morning so we’ve been delayed by 24hrs.

Credit where it’s due to the lovely lady at the desk at Birmingham, who was having to deal with some most unpleasant behaviour off other passengers that were not at all happy.

BHX
 

The base is in a mess once again and I would imagine any TUI staff or Swissport staff will be having a difficult day

G-TUID - stuck in Paphos overnight - inbound on TUI-com shows on time - really. However BHX have it due 01.00 tomorrow
G-TAWM - stuck in Las Palmas overnight - inbound shows on time on TUI.com. - BHX have it due 02.00 tomorrow
C-GFEH - Sunwing grounded 11 hours BHX

Tenerife - ops Tomorrow as per Matt5 - TUI.com shows on time outbound
Zante - ? This morning is yet to depart - per TUI.com it doesn't exist. BHX shows due out 07:25 but doesn't say which day

Hurghada and Mahon outbound this afternoon delayed

Smartlynx A320 due to position in from Manchester shortly.

Is there any point to the arrivals and departures page on their website if it is not properly updated, it is something what you would expect from the 1980's Politburo :)

Pete

Quite so Pete.

We have been put up at the Hilton overnight, and been advised that we have the same 06:25 flight tomorrow morning, whether that is on the same 788 that is on the ground in Pafos I’m not sure. I notice that the estimated departure time for that has already gone from 16:00 to 23:00.

From what I gathered speaking to TUI staff at the airport they were also dealing with a diversion in from Bournemouth too.

Not a great day all round, and not the best communication from TUI directly either. Once again, I have to give credit to their staff at the airport who for the most part were great in the face of a challenging morning. I do hope TUI realise their worth.

TUI had quite the day yesterday in Bournemouth. The first rotation in the morning had a bird strike. A Sunwing from CWL positioned after sunset and flew the passengers out 14 hours late (they spent the day in a hotel in Bournemouth). The return flight operated into CWL instead of BOH. A replacement TUI 737 came in to do the afternoon sector but that went a few hours late and diverted to BHX, which is the one you mention above. Whilst this was happening, 2x TUI 738s diverted to BOH from LGW as well and were on the ground quite some time before they were able to position back to LGW.

Yes indeed it was a busy day at BOH

In the afternoon / early evening there was 4 TUI B738 on the ramp

GLA once again being impacted by 787 ops.

G-TUIH from CUN was cancelled on Wednesday night departing.

As a result G-TUIJ was flown in empty from Manchester to cover the PMI and ACE 788 flights on Thursday.

TUIH flew in from Cancun this morning. As a result TUIJ went back to MAN, this is where it gets weird.

G-TUIA flew up to GLA from MAN to operate todays MLB, and TUIH flew empty from GLA to NCL to operate a CUN.

Anybody know why they didn’t just fly TUIA to NCL and keep TUIH in GLA?

There could be technical or operational reasons involved in the decision

TUI
 

You probably won't appreciate this but you are probably one of the lucky ones, Midlands meltdown is probably a bit excessive but chaotic for sure or just unlucky, I will let the reader decide.

Your aircraft is still in Paphos approaching 24 hours late

The next flight for this aircraft, this evenings Burgas is now a coach to Manchester for a 14:00 departure tomorrow? Most accept delays but seriously is that the best they can offer the passenger in mid September or the most convenient or cheapest option for them?

G-TAWM Still in Las Palmas now showing 11:05 tomorrow around 33 hours late

Sunwing back in service at BHX after 17 hours on the ground left 2 hours late to Larnaca

Zante from this morning operating from BHX 24 hours late same as the 788 to Tenerife

Smartlynx positioned down from Manchester (correction from Brussels) to operate the Mahon and is just departing after 4:30 on the ground now 7 hours late - The Manchester aircraft was G-TUKM which came to BHX and has done nothing showing cancelled to TFS tomorrow

Another Sunwing aircraft flew EMA - Ibiza this morning and has not returned and the outbound EMA - Palma cancelled

Further afield

Manchester - Punts Cana cancelled, Reus TOM2523 8:30 late, TOM2532 15:35 departing 08:20 tomorrow and TOM2570 to Heraklion - nothing showing

Gatwick has about 5 aircraft between 2-3 hours late but that might be counted as a success these days:)

Without any apparent major ATC disruption or weather issues (there must be some in that lot other than LGW) the above is one heck of a list - probably a bit unfair listing Gatwick. Manchester has a 763 on the ground for 3 days, a 788 for 15 hours and a 789 for 4 hours, plus a Smartlynx and Getjet so crew hours does seem a major issue

Pete

Well that 24hr delay has now gone to a 35hr one for us, message at 22:00 last night saying flight TOM7548 has been delayed again from 06:25 to 17:30.

I go back to a very apt point you’ve made Pete, is this really the best they can do, or is it the best option for them.

In the face of effectively losing a quarter of a 7 day holiday, we’re beginning to wonder if it’s even worth it at all.

TUID due to land in BHX around 04:00 so I can only assume from my hotel room that either it’s off somewhere else after, or they’re struggling for crew to operate it.

BHX
 

That is shocking and it all has to be crew hours now as spare aircraft all over the place. Manchester has 5 aircraft (2 third party) in for over 5 hours and BHX one.

Smartwings is operating the East Mids Palma from today at 15:00 tomorrow so maybe they are sourcing aircraft now

Pete

Surely by this point you'd have the right to cancel your holiday for a full refund? And book for something else rather than wasting the holiday you've paid for in a Birmingham Hilton?

​​​​​I guess time off work etc would be an issue if this is your week off, but it's certainly something I would look at in your situation.

As far as I’m aware that right is available when the flight is delayed more than a handful of hours.

The dilemma is though we’re in a situation where the goalposts keep moving as we’ve had our flight cancelled, and then the replacement cancelled too. After the first 24hr delay you think about it, and then accept that you lose a day off your holiday, these things happen, you’ll claim the compensation and still enjoy the best part of 6 days. Then the second delay comes and by that point you’re already there and waiting anyway. With the benefit of hindsight knowing you’re looking at 35hrs+ delay you might look at it differently.

Plus, as you say there’s holiday time booked off work etc.

It would be interesting to know that as they’ve cancelled our flight number twice now, whether we would be eligible to claim two lots of delays.

It appears that TUIC is coming to our rescue, but that’s got to do a MAN to IBZ return and then reposition to BHX in order for that to happen, and it was an hour late leaving MAN on the first leg, so let’s just see how that goes. On the face of it not a lot of moving parts but on yesterday’s form, who knows.

I would have thought a more robust plan would have been to bus us up to MAN and depart from there, but then I’m sure that people much more knowledgeable than I am would highlight why that isn’t so.

Bhx
 

It doesn’t get any better, the Zante has already been pushed back again as well. They decided to fly the spare aircraft empty to Salzburg rather than Zante to operate the last inbound Manchester.Priceless. The logic will be why delay another 189 pax and alienate them and pay more compensation rather than get the Zante pax to their destination earlier when their holiday is ruined already.

I am sure TUI ops are working their backsides off trying to get things sorted but it just looks like they are trying to do it on the cheap and not for the passengers benefit which is possibly harsh. It is mid September I am surprised they have not been able to sub in aircraft. Did they ask Jet2 to use their spare aircraft at BHX (somehow pride probably prevented that) but of course we will never know the issues ops are having. From the outside looking in it looks a total and utter mess but no doubt a different story the other way round.

I would not get a coach anywhere unless on the way back from holiday and needed to get home as they have proved without doubt they can’t be trusted. Always contentious as well as it is not always done for the passenger’s benefit.

Pete

Randomly I noticed that during this BHX melt down TUML a based BHX 73M is swopping with NCL based TUMK this morning in ALC. while this will be for “operational” reasons wonder if TUML needs some attention that the NCL based engineers can give it or is it the other way around with TUMK needing attention in BHX??? I know we’ll never know but just seemed an unnecessary complication from my arm chair ops position!

The Burgas which has been coached away for a 15:00 departure from Manchester is now showing 18:00 on a Privilege Style B772 which operated MAN-RHO-MAN arriving back in the early hours and clearly the same crew waiting to come back into hours. I suppose still a success as around 24 hours late compare to Zante nearly 30 hours and Tenerife 34 hours but of course the clocking is still running on those two.

Zante is ironically on the aircraft that arrived from Manchester yesterday evening which would not have been able to operate then due ZTH opening hours and is running a bit late on an Ibiza morning rotation but all other morning departures have gone keeping the Smartlynx A320 rather than going back to Brussels. All should be back on track at BHX by tomorrow morning.

Pete

Yes I’d heard about the Zante delay also, they’re held up in the same hotel we are.

Similar situation that you mention with the spare aircraft to Salzburg as us, TUID arrived in BHX in time to be able to get us to TFS on the first rescheduled flight (the one TUKM was brought in for, but ended up doing nothing), but it flew a Palma instead.

Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t wish for knock on delays and upset to anyone else’s holiday or travel plans at my expense, but it certainly feels we (and others like the Zante flight) are suffering further at the expense of not alienating others, as you’ve appropriately said.

I like to consider myself a reasonable and level headed person, I do not blame TUI for circumstances beyond their control like aircraft going tech, but I do blame them for not doing enough to get people where they are meant to be, it’s been over a day since we should have been at our destination, surely by now there should have been an aircraft chartered in to get people on their holidays, but I guess it’s all about the cost.

It may be an unexpected consequence of EU261 - it's cheaper to have one big delay than pay out on lots of medium delays

Would FR have any spare aircraft and crew for a sub charter?