A WARRINGTON couple heading to the sun for Christmas were left feeling “bogged off” when their plane was delayed by 25 hours — after running out of loo roll!
Dave and Amanda Holden, who run Express Mobile Tyres in Warrington had been due to leave Manchester for Egypt at 9.55am last Thursday.
But they did not board until mid-afternoon the following day, with TUI blaming the weather after the apologetic captain had previously revealed they needed to restock toilet paper and hand towels.
Staff rushed to get supplies from another plane but at 4.30 pm the flight was cancelled due to a “minor technical issue” as the crew had reached their legal working hours, so passengers had to disembark and stay at a Manchester hotel without their luggage. An announcement was made at the airport stating passengers would get £520 compensation each.
The jet finally left for Sharm El-Sheikh the following morning.
Dave contacted Warrington Worldwide from his hotel to highlight the issue after Tui announced at the airport passengers would get £520 compensation each – but were now saying they were not entitled to compensation as the delay had been caused by bad weather.
Dave said: “The captain said £520 per person according to eu reg 261.
“But TUI are now blaming the weather even though every other airline took off. When we got on the plane we were taxied and then they said there was an engine fault. Obviously, the passengers only want what the captain said – £520 per person. But after submitting their claim they are now they are being told there is no compensation.
On submitting their claim for compensation the couple received the following email:
“Thank you for taking the time to get in touch with us regarding your flight delay claim for flight TOM718 on 15/12/2022 from MAN to SSH.
“I appreciate that delays can impact your enjoyment and comfort whilst travelling with us. I would like to reassure you that while we try our very best to ensure we get you on holiday and home again as close to your original planned times as possible, despite our best efforts, delays can happen on occasion.
“European Regulation EC 261/2004 states that we as the Airline may have to pay compensation to you when you experience a long delay of over 3 hours on arrival, but only if the delay wasn’t caused by ‘extraordinary circumstances’. We have investigated your claim for your flight delay of 25 hours and 24 minutes and our delay handling logs show that your flight was delayed due to adverse weather conditions across the whole of the UK. As a result there has been major disruption to air travel and continued delays to ground operations at the airports due to ongoing freezing temperatures impacting essential services. This affected the operating schedule of your flight. So as to help both customers and airlines, the European Commission has recently published draft guidelines as to what amounts to extraordinary circumstances. This list was prepared with the assistance of the various national bodies responsible for regulating the aviation industry across Europe. In this draft, the Commission has intimated that the following would be considered extraordinary circumstances: 10. Meteorological conditions or natural disaster or similar events “Conditions and events incompatible with the safe operation of the flight. These conditions and events may be forecast to arise at either the airport of departure, the airport of arrival or along the intended flight path of the aircraft.” 14. Meterological / De-icing “Extreme weather conditions which result in the elevated consumption and exhaustion of what would usually constitute ample de-icing stocks due to third party supply failures – with the result that the aircraft cannot be de-iced for departure” An operating air carrier shall not be obliged to pay compensation in accordance with Article 7, if it can prove that the delay is caused by extraordinary circumstances which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken. Having investigated into the reasons for the delay to your flight, I can confirm that the circumstances surrounding the delay to your flight are classified as extraordinary circumstances under Regulation 261/2004 of the European Union.
In a statement, TUI said: “We are really sorry to customers on Flight TOM718 who were unfortunately delayed overnight.
“This was due to a combination of weather, congestion at the airport and a minor technical issue which resulted in the flight crew reaching their maximum legal working hours.”
