TUI flight delays leave passengers livid

DOZENS of holidaymakers who faced nightmare delays waiting to fly to Spain finally departed Cork Airport last night after suffering two cancellations in a 36-hour period.

Holidaymakers were left stranded in Cork after two flights, due to depart Cork Airport for Salou, were unfortunately cancelled this week.

The original TUI Holidays flight, due to depart Cork at 2.15pm on Tuesday, was cancelled with TUI citing technical difficulties.

Passengers were put up in hotels across Cork and the flight was rescheduled for 6.40am yesterday morning but that too was subsequently cancelled.

Frustrated passengers eventually took to the air at around 7.20pm last night.

Speaking to Virgin Media News, passengers aired their frustration at the delays to their holiday yesterday.

“How can they put a man on the moon and communicate with him but TUI can’t tell us what’s going on with our holiday?” asked one woman impacted by the cancellations.

Another said that it was to be her son’s first holiday abroad.

“It’s a pretty crap start to it now, to be honest,” she added.

“I didn’t plan on spending two days in Cork out of my seven-day trip which I saved so hard for,” said another would-be holidaymaker.

“I booked it in January and paid €1,600 for two people.”

While the passengers were provided with hotel rooms across Cork, their bags were left at the airport awaiting departure.

Another woman who travelled from Kerry with her family to catch the flight said they had been saving for years for the holiday.

“This was to be our week away but there are two days gone now, unfortunately.”

A spokesperson for TUI said they would like to apologise to customers affected.

“The flight has been delayed due to a technical issue with the aircraft originally planned to operate the flight,” she explained.

“An alternative aircraft has been sourced from within the TUI Airways fleet to operate the flight at the earliest opportunity.

“Customers have been provided with full board hotel accommodation,” she added.

“We understand how frustrating a flight delay can be and would like to thank them for their patience while we do everything we can to minimise the disruption.”