‘It was absolute chaos’: TUI holidaymakers’ nightmarish journey home after flight cancellation

A couple who went on holiday to celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary have told how they experienced a nightmare journey home after a last-minute flight cancellation. Deborah and Graham Easby’s travel plans were thrown into disarray when TUI announced their flight back to the East Midlands from Rhodes in Greece would not take off.

After a two-hour delay, they were transferred to Manchester Airport. But when they landed in the early hours of Wednesday, they said passengers faced “absolute chaos”.

Deborah, 50, said: “We arrived in Manchester and there were 121 of us completely stuck. There was just one TUI representative, surrounded by all these people.

Dad slams TUI as family holiday ‘ruined’ after ‘horrible’ experience at Manchester Airport

“There were babies crying, everyone was exhausted. It was absolute carnage and there was absolutely no communication from TUI. »

The couple, from Worksop, Notts, were due to return to the East Midlands at 1.40am after a fortnight’s holiday. But shortly before going to the airport, they received a message telling them that their flight had been canceled.

They say they were told alternative arrangements had been made for passengers to travel to Manchester, Stansted or Birmingham, where coaches would be made available to take them back to the East Midlands. Eventually, the couple returned in a taxi paid for by TUI.

Speaking on Wednesday morning, shortly after returning to the East Midlands, Deborah said: “We’ve been traveling for almost 14 hours now and we’re still not home. We are exhausted.

“We were told it was an operational problem and we can accept that things happen. But it was the lack of organization.