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70,000 ash affected TUI travellers returned home
Monday, 29 Apr, 2010
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A total of 70,000 TUI UK holidaymakers stuck overseas due to the volcanic ash disruption were due to have been repatriated by last night (Wednesday).
The vast majority of Thomson and First Choice clients had already returned to the UK, leaving a "very small number" to travel back yesterday.
Around 235 repatriation flights were organised from the opening of UK airspace to bring people home together with the use of three cruise ships and fleets of coaches.
Package holiday and flight-only travellers overseas were accommodated in hotels with the cost covered by the operator.
More than 100,000 hotel rooms were provided at no extra charge. In the majority cases this accommodation was provided on an all-inclusive or half-board basis. Most package holidaymakers were able to remain in the accommodation they had originally chosen.
Thomson and First Choice began repatriated people by coach and three cruise ships.
Some travelled from southern Spain by coach to Northern France where they were put on a ferry back to the UK and coached from Dover to their original departure airport.
New Thomson Cruises’ ship Thomson Dream was used to transfer those stranded on Majorca to Barcelona from where onward travel was arranged.
Island Cruises also transported a number of passengers on the Island Escape, who were unable to fly back to the UK after their cruise, plus 300 non-cruise Thomson and First Choice holidaymakers. They were collected in Funchal, Madeira en-route and the ship reached Falmouth last Friday, where coaches were waiting to transport customers back to their original UK departure airport.
Other Thomson and First Choice holidaymakers were taken via coach to Bilbao in Spain where they were put on new ship Celebrity Eclipse to be brought back to Southampton.
Communications director Christian Cull said: “The closure of UK airspace for six days was a completely unprecedented situation.
“Everyone at Thomson Airways, Thomson and First Choice rose to the challenge and their number one priority at all times was getting customers home safely.
“We are very proud of all the hard work that has happened across the business, to look after customers and repatriate them back to the UK so quickly.
“The response from our customers has been overwhelming and we would like to thank them for their support.”
by Phil Davies
Phil Davies
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