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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Travel
Lauren Davidson & Milo Boyd

TUI cancels holiday at last-minute as airport won't exist when couple return

A couple's holiday was cancelled at the last minute because the airport they were supposed to return to is closing.

The Cleethorpes duo discovered a day before they were due to jet off from Doncaster Sheffield Airport that its last ever flight had already gone.

The couple, who asked not be named, were due to fly to Tenerife from Doncaster Sheffield Airport with TUI on Monday, October 31, Grimsby Live reported.

They said if it wasn't for their daughter reading online that the last flight had already departed from the airport, they would have still showed up for their flight as they claim they were not told any different by TUI.

The airport is closing despite objections from the public (Asadour Guzelian)

The last flights out of the airport left this weekend, and the final flights returning to it are due to land this week after owner Peel Group decided it was not commercially viable.

The husband rang the TUI helpline yesterday and asked whether their flight would be taking off today.

"She said it was definitely going, and I said, 'What about coming back?'" he said of his interaction with a customer service representative.

"She put me on hold again and came back and said, 'No, it's not going back to Doncaster'. We were so frustrated and stressed out."

The last flight to depart from Doncaster Sheffield Airport was the 10.55pm to Katowice, Poland on Saturday, October 29.

There are no departures listed this week, and only three arrivals.

The holidaymaker said they were given the option of receiving a full refund or re-booking another holiday with a 10% discount.

They opted for the latter and booked a holiday to the same place in late November to fly from East Midlands Airport.

The husband continued: "The emails we got from TUI just said what we needed to pack in our suitcase and that we could check in to our flight.

"But it didn't say anything about the current situation, it was just about general things.

"We've had no information from TUI at all. If we hadn't have rang them up, we would've just rolled up with our suitcases.

The last flights are due to land there this week (DSA)

"We spoke to who we thought was a manager who told us we should've been notified and that we'd just slipped through the net.

"But I bet there's been people turning up for that flight today who wouldn't have known anything about it, and they've probably found out about it now that it's too late."

The closure of the airport will be a massive blow for the local community, both in terms of those who used it and the 800 people employed there.

It has caused great anger by those in South Sheffield who feel let down and left behind by the closure, which former PM Liz Truss pledged to stop at the start of her premiership.

"I'm disgusted. It's a waste of a good runway," one holiday-maker told BBC Look North at the airport on Saturday.

"A lot of people use it. The crew on our flight were on their penultimate flight and they were in tears."

Peel Group announced last month that it would close at the end of October due to a lack of financial viability.

A spokesperson for TUI said: "We’d like to apologise to Mr and Mrs Hollis for their experience regarding their flight to Tenerife.

"Unfortunately, due to a system error Mr and Mrs were not advised about the change to their inbound flight.

"We’d like to reassure customers that this is a rare occurrence and the issue has been raised with the relevant team to ensure this does not happen again.

"Our team has contacted Mr and Mrs Hollis to apologise again and offer a further gesture of goodwill for the inconvenience caused."

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