Tui is canceling flights and holidays as passengers wait at departure gates

Europe’s biggest travel agency Tui is canceling more high-season holiday packages as it struggles to recover from the CrowdStrike chaos.

The company’s employee roster system was affected by Friday’s IT outage. Tui ended 64 holiday flights to and from the UK on Friday, with further delays and cancellations on Saturday and Sunday.

The company is taking the highly unusual step of canceling entire tours to deal with the scale of its problems – which are particularly acute at Manchester Airport.

Stay tuned for the latest updates on the Crowdstrike global IT outage as Microsoft releases a recovery tool

A passenger waiting for a Manchester-Lanzarote flight due to depart at 6am on Sunday learned shortly before midday that her entire holiday had been cancelled.

She said The Independent she has now rebooked with Jet2 Holidays to go to Tenerife on Monday.

Tui’s Manchester-Cancún flight, scheduled to depart at 12pm on Saturday, was ultimately canceled eight hours later.

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner was ready to leave for the Mexican resort, but Tui decided to deploy it first to take passengers to Palma de Mallorca and bring the others home.

Passenger Lindsay Dawes said that at the departure gate for the flight to Cancun, “they were told there was no pilot because the crew had gone over their hours.”

She said: “We were then sent through security to arrivals where the staff basically couldn’t answer and told us to arrange our own hotels and transport for the night.”

According to the rules of air passenger rights, an airline that cancels a flight is obliged to provide hotels and meals if necessary.

A Tui spokesperson said: “Due to the global IT issue at airports and airlines around the world on Friday, Tui’s overall services were severely affected this weekend and we would like to apologize to all those affected.

“While the original IT issue was beyond our control, the impact on our systems on Friday meant that our flight program suffered ongoing delays that we were unable to resolve.

“We have therefore made the difficult decision to cancel a number of outbound flights and delay a number of inbound flights returning to the UK on Friday 19 July and Sunday 21 July.

“We are very sorry to all customers affected as we understand how disappointing this would be and recognize that many customers were already at the airport waiting to depart.”

“Our teams are working extremely hard to get everyone to and from vacation as soon as possible.”

British Airways and easyJet jointly canceled dozens of flights on Sunday, mainly at London Heathrow and London Gatwick. They blame the effects of severe weather in continental Europe and severe air traffic control (ATC) restrictions.

easyJet passenger Adam Collyer wrote on X/Twitter: “Flight from Naples Airport with easyJet at 10.30am to Gatwick. Canceled at 6:00. No alternative flights are available and no assistance or guidance has been provided on their behalf. Now booked with Jet2 flying to Manchester.”

An easyJet spokesman said: “Unfortunately, some flights were unable to operate due to the impact of weather and capacity air traffic control restrictions imposed in Europe yesterday, the 20th impact which resulted in the aircraft being located off-base.”

“We are doing everything we can to minimize the impact on our customers and are providing those on canceled flights with the option to rebook their flight or receive a refund, as well as hotel accommodation and meals where needed.”

The airline planned to operate around 3,800 flights this weekend.

To make matters worse for travelers at Manchester Airport, points on the rail line to and from Manchester Piccadilly were out.

TransPennine Express said: “Train services to and from these stations may be canceled or delayed by up to 45 minutes.”