IT outage: Tui flight cancellations trap passengers for days

About 200 passengers flying with Tui have been left stranded in Gran Canaria for three and a half days unable to board a flight home after computer systems crashed on Friday.

Mali Hill, 38, from Caerphilly, had been on a week’s holiday with her partner Philip, before chaos hit.

Ms Hill, who hopes to fly home on Tuesday, said she feels “stuck in limbo” and her holiday has been “tarnished” by the experience.

Tui apologised for the problems resulting from the global IT outage and added that any of its customers currently overseas would be looked after and their return flights provided.

Ms Hill and her partner flew out to Gran Canaria on 13 July expecting to spend a week in Riu Maspalomas Palace Hotel.

They spent their time exploring the island and reading, but that “gorgeous, relaxing” week has now been spoilt by their journey home.

On Saturday 20 July, they were supposed to catch the 19:15 BST flight from the island’s airport to Cardiff.

But not only was their shuttle bus late, their flight was showing up as delayed when they arrived there.

The arrivals board and the Tui app said they would be able to catch the 03:10 flight on Sunday, but there were no airline representatives in the terminal to ask, nor were they sent any information.

“We wandered around to see if we could find anybody else from the flight and we could hear some Welsh accents so we spoke to them,” she said.

“This lady said she contacted Tui in the morning because she’d found out that the flight that was coming to us was coming from Turkey, then it had to go to Cardiff, and then Cardiff to here – but it hadn’t left Turkey, it had been cancelled that morning.”

Ms Hill said there was about 200 people waiting in the terminal, with lots of screaming children.

She said the airport shops closed at 19:00 and while passengers were given euros to spend, the shop workers were “trying to shoo people out, going ‘no we’re closed, you can’t spend that'”.

“I’m gluten intolerant, my partner had to rush around to find anything.”

Ms Hill was able to contact a Tui agent on the app.

“Everybody else had been ghosted. This [agent] was putting his neck out on the line to give us information that he wasn’t sure he was allowed to give,” she said.

It was through this messaging she discovered the plane was further delayed until 05:45.

The 38-year-old said at about 23:00 “someone came over and said the flight’s been cancelled” and everyone had to collect their luggage.

They were told they would be taken to a hotel.

“We all had an email saying it’s been cancelled due to technical issues with the aircraft, then the rep we spoke to said it was due to staffing issues, and then the following email said ‘it was due to the IT outage’,” she said.

The group had to wait for several buses as they could only transport 60 people at a time, Ms Hill said.

They then waited for two days in a hotel with no updates on when they could fly.

She said the hotel was “just manic”.

She said passengers were given the option of booking their own flights and claiming them back, but she said the only direct flight was 27 July.

“If my flight gets cancelled today [Tuesday], I’m booking another flight,” Ms Hill, a senior business co-ordinator said.

“Anywhere in the UK, I’m getting on it, I’m not leaving this airport.

“I need to get home. My work falls apart without me for a week, let alone more than a week, I just want to get home.

“I know the IT outage is out of everybody’s hands, but it’s just communication.”

Ms Hill said she felt “lucky” she had booked a package with Tui because “we were covered. They had to put us up in a hotel. They had to feed us – at least we’re lucky in that way”.

Some holidaymakers have spoken about some having to sleep on the floor in airports.

A Tui spokesperson said: “We would like to apologise to our customers who were impacted by the global IT outage that resulted in some delays and cancellations.

“Whilst the original IT issue was outside of our control the impact, alongside air traffic control restrictions over the weekend, meant we had to cancel some flights and delay some return flights home.

“We understand how frustrating this would have been and recognise that many of these delays happened when our customers were already at the airport.

We would like to reassure customers that if they are currently overseas our teams will look after them and provide flights home.

“Tui will continue to update customers with more information and can confirm that if a return flight time has changed they will be contacted directly 24 hours before departure.

“We thank our customers for their understanding and continued patience.”