Almost a million Brits have had their dreams of a beach getaway crushed after package holiday giant TUI cancelled all trips for the next six weeks.
Holiday hopefuls who were banking on a sunny seaside break were told today that bookings up to and including June 11 were being scrapped.
It had previously axed holidays up to May 14 and there is no certainty that planes will take off on June 12.
And the company’s Marella cruise ship holidays are also grounded until July 1 at the earliest, it revealed.
TUI - Britain’s biggest holiday firm - said 900,000 people were affected by the cancellations caused by “the on-going travel restrictions” across the world.
It said: “All impacted customers are being notified. Rolling cancellations have been put in place to ensure customer-service teams can support those impacted by the cancellations in date order.”
The firm was sending out automatic “refund credits” to drop into email boxes within four weeks of departure dates.
But it warned those seeking a full refund that there would be a lengthy wait “due to the volume of holidays impacted”.
On its website it urged passengers to wait until they had received the credit refund before applying for their money back “so we can continue helping customers in date order”.
Brits are owed around £7 billion by the travel industry and consumer watchdog Which? is calling on the Government and industry to work together to protect passengers and the holiday firms and airlines.
Which? Travel editor Rory Boland said: “We do not want to see the industry suffer further as a result of this outbreak, but it cannot be on consumers to prop up airlines and travel firms, especially when so many will be in difficult financial situations of their own.
“The Government must urgently set out how it will support travel firms and airlines to ensure they can meet their legal obligations to refund customers for cancelled travel plans - and avoid permanent damage to trust and confidence in the travel industry.”
Under current EU law, tour operators must refund customers within 14 days of cancellation but travel body ABTA has backed the industry and called for a relaxation of the rules to give the travel world some breathing space.
