Manchester Airport ‘chaos’ continues as hundreds of holidays cancelled by text message

Passengers continued to experience major disruption at Manchester Airport this morning as holidays were cancelled via text message at the very last minute.

Devastated travellers took to social media across the morning to share footage of the ‘carnage’ at the airport, with many being made to queue for over three hours and, in the worst case, be told their holiday was cancelled altogether.

One Twitter user shared a video of piles of abandoned luggage, describing the scene as an ‘absolute mess’. 

Another vented her frustration after having her flight cancelled while on the way to the airport, writing: “What a s**t show. 7am flight from Manchester to Amsterdam cancelled on way to airport, next available flight [not until] Friday!!”

And Manchester City Councillor Pat Karney revealed that he’d had his full TUI holiday cancelled altogether, with him sharing a screenshot of the ‘shambles’ email sent at 2:50am this morning.

The email read: “Dear customer, we are contacting you to let you know that due to unprecedented challenges in our operation at Manchester Airport we have taken the incredibly difficult decision to cancel your flight.

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“We deeply regret having to make this decision as we know how much you would have been looking forward to your holiday.”

TUI announced yesterday it would be cancelling hundreds of flights from Manchester Airport throughout the next month in a bid to provide ‘stability and a better customer service’.

In a statement, the holiday operator first apologised for making the ‘difficult decision’ before announcing that six flights a day would be cancelled until the end of June. 

Customers affected by the flight cancellations will receive a full refund for their holiday, as well as an ‘extra gesture of goodwill’

Though TUI isn’t the only airline to face disruption; EasyJet has been plagued with issues throughout the last few weeks, with the airline cancelling hundreds of its own flights at the very last minute thanks to an IT issue. 

The airline said in a statement: “We advise customers due to travel with us today to continue to check Flight Tracker to check the status of their flight before making their way to the airport.

“We apologise for the inconvenience caused and would like to thank customers for their patience as we work to resolve this as soon as possible.”