After a 43-hour flight delay to Majorca, families were forced to’sleep in their cars,’ causing chaos at Norwich airport.
Passengers were supposed to fly with TUI to Palma at 7:20 p.m. on Friday, but a ‘technical fault with the aircraft’ kept them waiting for updates from the travel agency.
After two days and nights in the airport, the plane took off at 1:55pm on Sunday afternoon.
The TUI flight that was delayed was operated by the Spanish airline Albastar.
Terry Mack, 75, a pensioner, described the service as ‘appalling’ after many elderly passengers were forced to sleep in their cars and on the small airport’s seats.
He told ITV News: ‘I am 75 years of age, I have travelled all over the world since the age of 16. Never in 59 years have I ever known people to be treated so appallingly.’
Passengers also claimed they were ‘not offered accommodation’ as they waited for updates over a ’43-hour period’.
One furious traveller, Luce, took to Twitter and blasted TUI’s ‘disgusting customer service’ and not being able to ‘purchase food or drink’ for her children due to the ‘pubs being shut’ after the company announced the flight was delayed.
She wrote: ‘Arrived at Norwich Airport at 4.30 for 7.30 flight. No food being served so no dinner for kids. We go to board at 7pm [but there’s a] technical fault with the plane. Still waiting. Go to buy the kids a drink, pub closed. Hoping TUI can help us out.
‘I’ve called them twice. Once at 4.30am. No call back. Again at 7am. She said they were waiting for parts for the plane and would call me back within the hour. One hour and 40 mins later still no call. Absolutely disgusting customer service from TUI.
‘Not one update since the flight was cancelled at 7pm last night. Been on hold for so long and keep being passed from person to person! We knew there was a fault at 7pm last night. Just spoke to Norwich airport who said they are still waiting on information from TUI.’
As the hours went by, holidaymakers were ‘left in limbo waiting for updates’ from the travel agent – Luce claimed delays were experienced up ‘to the very second’.
Luce added: ‘Everyone is angry due to the lack of updates. It’s not fair. Now at the airport. Due to leave in 40 mins. Announcement saying more delays. More technical issues. No TUI reps on site. Next information at 1pm!!’
While many businesses in the aviation sector are struggling to rehire staff after many were let go during the pandemic due to a collapse in demand thanks to successive lockdowns, high levels of staff sickness for those who are still employed is also having an impact.
TUI has also come under fire for reportedly diverting a flight from Larnaca in Cyprus, which was due to land at Bristol, to Gatwick, before telling passengers to ‘find their own way home.’
One affected customer fumed: ‘You left diverted passengers at Gatwick with no bus to take them back to Bristol airport and your staff crying because of the situation – 24 hour delayed from Larnaca and then this. Passengers told to find their own way home.’
It comes after unhappy holidaymakers at Bristol Airport were forced to sleep on the floor to avoid queues yesterday, while those at Heathrow Airport were sent on a wild goose chase to find their own luggage.
One traveller brought an air mattress with them to Bristol as they fought their way through check-in lines that began as early as 4.30 a.m.
Customers had arrived hours before their flights in an attempt to avoid the already long lines and further travel chaos.
Heathrow was first thrown into disarray in March, when executives struggled to hire enough staff amid widespread labor shortages in the UK in the aftermath of the pandemic.
After unions rejected a 10% pay offer in favor of walkouts as soon as next month, possibly during the summer break, British Airway employees are also threatening to strike.
The airline’s offer, according to union bosses, was only a one-time “bonus,” and their employees want a full-time raise.
Early July is the earliest that the strikes could occur, but the unions have not specified a timeline, possibly in an effort to put pressure on BA executives to give in.
Several pieces of ‘unclaimed’ luggage appeared to be thrown around the carousels in pictures from inside Heathrow, while other desperate travelers were sent on a fruitless search for their bags that were supposed to arrive with them days earlier.
Kate Hardcastle MBE was left without her luggage after boarding a flight from Cannes to Heathrow last week, and she has been unable to locate it for six days.
A British Airways employee informed her that her bag had been placed on a flight to Dublin and had returned to Terminal 2 – which had been the most affected by the luggage disruption.
The business expert said she had been told by Heathrow staff that they were advising their own families not to travel until at least November.
Speaking to MailOnline Kate said: ‘I am genuinely worried for people who don’t travel as often as I do, I have been travelling for 20 years and you think nothing is going to phase you.
‘But this is chaotic. People coming for holidays that they have worked for for years have no idea what is in store for them.
‘I was in Terminal 5 for two hours in the end when I landed last week from Cannes trying to get my bag.
‘It was chaos, they were pushing forms at people, really complex forms. BA haven’t been answering the phones for months as far as I understand it.
‘I had to pack a bag for four weeks as I will be travelling away for work for that period, and I have high value and sentimental items in there which have just gone.
‘Normally I would advise everyone to pack light and would do that myself, but I just couldn’t in my current situation. It is a complete goose chase, BA have said that they don’t know where in the world my bag is.
‘Today I arrived at Terminal 2 hoping to get it back, there were 13 people there before me who said that they had been there for hours and no one was answering from any airline.
‘I managed to track someone down from operations and we helped to get the people who had flown today’s bags back.
‘Staff members on the ground have said they are advising their own friends and family not to travel until November because of the chaos.
I’m just stunned by the silence of the CEO’s who have not said anything at all.
‘The fact of the matter is that people in the UK have waited like Rapunzel in a tower for two years and they don’t deserve to be delayed or without their baggage.
‘Why no one at the top of the companies is not stepping up I don’t know.
‘I am not one to criticise unduly, but if you aren’t even prepared to be on the front line and tough it out it’s not good enough.
‘People are quite rightly close to tears, I’m close to tears. I have no hope that I’ll get it back.
‘People who live further away and have lost their baggage can’t even get back easily. I’m having to carry my stuff on in carrier bags.’
A British Airways spokeswoman told MailOnline: ‘We’re doing everything we can to reunite our customer with their bag.
‘We apologise for the delay and inconvenience caused.’
Heathrow are advising any passengers having issues with their baggage to contact the individual airlines.