Tui passengers stranded in 50-HOUR delay ‘nightmare’ on Corfu

Tui passengers were left stranded in a ‘nightmare’ 50-HOUR delay at Corfu airport after a global IT outage caused worldwide travel chaos on Friday (July 19).

Holidaymakers who were hoping to fly back to Manchester after their holidays on the Greek island are now desperate to get home, having received a number of emails telling them their return flights have been suddenly cancelled.

It comes after thousands of flights were cancelled worldwide, and many more delayed, as airports around the world were forced to switch to manual check-in and boarding. The outage led to online check-ins going down, while some departure screens at airports stopped working, leading to a cascade of flight delays and cancellations.

READ MORE Tui cancels a number of flights from Manchester Airport today

A passenger, who had traveled to Corfu with his mother, has complained to the Manchester Evening News of the ‘nightmare’ they are currently facing. They were due to fly back to Manchester on Friday afternoon, but at 4pm on Sunday, they claim to still be sitting in the departure lounge with no idea when their new flight would leave.

They say they were told to book their own hotels for two nights after their first TOM2519 flight was cancelled on Friday (July 19) – but 50 hours later they are still waiting to hear whether the plane will even leave the runway. They claimed some passengers, who could not afford last-minute costs to book accommodation, have spent two gruelling nights at the airport.

The passenger, who wished to remain anonymous, said: “Our flight was due to leave at 2.20pm on Friday, back to Manchester. They picked us up from the hotel and when we got to the airport there were huge queues, it was chaos.

“It was horrible, there were people everywhere. Some had to stand outside in the 35 degree heat because the airport was so busy. Everyone was queuing because all the flights were delayed.