UNITED KINGDOM: TUI Airlines Passengers Sit On Plane Floor After Buying Tickets For Seats That Were Non Existent

A family returning from holiday found they had no seats once they had boarded their plane and spent part of the flight sitting on the floor.

Despite having boarding passes, the Taylor family found empty spaces where their seats should have been.

The family, from Alcester, Warwickshire, had paid £1,300 and were flying from Mahon in Menorca to Birmingham with TUI airlines.

The Civil Aviation Authority is looking into the matter.

Mrs Taylor and her husband were given flip-up seats but the plane's food and other items were stored behind them, she said.

Paula Taylor said her husband and 10-year-old daughter had got to the airport early, in June, to make sure they were seated together.

Their seat numbers were 41 D, E and F. But when they got on the plane there was an empty space underneath the numbers.

We all just looked at each other as if to say where's our seats gone?, Mrs Taylor said.

Once all the passengers had boarded there was just one seat left. Mrs Taylor's daughter Brooke was given that seat while she and her husband were given flip-up seats in the crew section.

Paula Taylor said she was given short shrift when she tried to raise the matter with TUI afterwards.

But once the flight had taken off, crew were busy serving food and other items stored behind those seats and Mr and Mrs Taylor had to go and sit on the floor, in the space their seats should have been. They were joined by Brooke as she did not want to sit alone.

The family say they were thanked by the plane crew for their understanding.

But Mrs Taylor says she was given short shrift when she raised the matter with TUI and was eventually offered a goodwill gesture of £30.

After the family contacted Rip Off Britain, TUI refunded their fares and said a last-minute aircraft change, meant the family's assigned seats were unavailable, as the alternative aircraft had a different seating configuration.

It said it was sorry for the way the situation was initially handled and will contact the family directly to apologise.

The Civil Aviation Authority says while passengers are allowed to sit in crew seats under certain conditions, they must not be left unseated during any stage of the flight.

It told Rip-Off Britain it would be contacting TUI for an explanation.


Tourism Observer

SENEGAL: Corsair Suspends Seven Weekly Flights Between Paris Orly And Dakar In Favour Of Air Sénégal.

From 31 January 2019, Corsair is forced to suspend its seven weekly flights between Paris Orly and Dakar in favour of Air Sénégal.

French holiday airline, a subsidiary of German TUI Group, part of TUI Airlines, has been notified by the Senegalese aviation authority ANACIM - Agence nationale de l’aviation civile et de la météorologie.

ANACIM has decided to grant the traffic rights to Air Senegal, who plans to operate between Dakar and Paris from 1 February 2019 with one of the two Airbus A330neo that the airline ordered in February 2018.

Since 2012, Corsair linked Paris with Dakar and according to the Senegalese authorities, in perfect collaboration with Senegal: During these six years Corsair supported the economic and tourism development in our country, we noticed an increase of passenger traffic and a strong reduction of ticket prices.

Corsair sincerely thanked the Senegalese authorities for the collaboration during the past six years. The company has taken note of the decision of the Senegalese authorities and regrets to have to suspend its flights.


Tourism Observer

NETHERLANDS: TUI Plane To Dominican Republic Grounded After It Was Discovered Leaking

A Boeing Dreamliner's leaking fuel tank grounded a TUI flight from Schiphol to the Dominican Republic and Jamaica early this year.

The Human Environment and Transport Inspectorate launched an investigation, as this is not the first Dreamliner to have fuel tank problems, AD reports.

The incident happened on January 19th. Shortly before departure from Schiphol, it was discovered that the Dreamliner was dripping kerosene. The passengers were already on the plane, preparing for takeoff.

The TUI crew immediately turned the engines off and passengers disembarked.

At no time was there any danger for the passengers and crew, Petra Kok of TUI said.

Safety in the air is our greatest priority. In the end it turned out to be a relatively innocent defect, but we did not know that beforehand and safety takes precedence over punctuality.

The fuel tank was emptied and an extensive inspection took place.

According to TUI, the leak was caused by a production error at Boeing.

Despite it being a small defect, it took so long to fix that TUI eventually contracted another aircraft to fly affected passengers to their destination the next morning. They spent the night in a hotel near Schiphol.

The Human Environment and Transport Inspectorate launched an investigation into the leaking Dreamliner. The Inspectorate would not tell AD whether other Dreamliners will be inspected for leaks.

Boeing is also investigating the incident. The company would not comment on the incident with the TUI plane, or say whether other Dreamliners experienced similar problems.

This is not the first time a Dreamliner fuel tank leaks, AD reports.

In 2012 the United States aviation authority FAA launched an investigation into production faults in Dreamliner tanks after two previous leaks.

In 2013 a Boeing Dreamliner 787 lost more than 150 liters of fuel just before takeoff in Boston. And in 2014 a Norwegian Air Dreamliner was grounded in Bangkok due to a fuel leak.

In that case the fuel cap turned out to be the problem.



Tourism Observer

CANADA: Sunwing Airlines

Sunwing Airlines Inc. is a Canadian low-cost airline headquartered in the Etobicoke district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Sunwing Airlines offers scheduled and charter services from Canada and the United States to destinations within the United States, Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America and South America, and domestic services across Canada during the summer months.

Its main Canadian bases are at Toronto Pearson International Airport, Montréal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport and Vancouver International Airport however it also operates seasonal flight services from over 30 local Canadian gateways. The airline is a subsidiary of Sunwing Travel Group.

Sunwing Vacations started its in-house airline in March 2015 using Boeing 737-800s to operate non domestic flights and flights from Canada to the USA, Mexico, the Caribbean. Since then, its president is Mark Williams, who had been president of Skyservice and had worked with Wardair and Canadian Airlines.

On September 29, 2005 Sunwing Airlines' parent company, Sunwing Travel Group, acquired Signature Vacations and SellOffVacations, and subsequently signed a partnership deal with TUI Group which acquired 49% of Sunwing Travel and a 25% voting interest in the venture. As part of the Sunwing Travel Group, Sunwing Airlines was named one of Canada's 100 fastest growing companies by the magazine Profit 100 for 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010.

In early 2015 it was announced that Sunwing had finalised a deal to acquire two Boeing 737-800 and four Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft from Air Lease Corporation in a $350m contract. The aircraft are due to be delivered over a four-year period from early 2016. In December 2015, parent company Sunwing Travel Group also acquired Caribbean Nexus Tours (now known as NexusTours), a ground handler and incoming tour operator in the Dominican Republic and Mexico.

Sunwing began operating summer charter flights between Canada and European destinations during the summer of 2015. Two of the Boeing 737-800ER are leased to Thomson Airways, which are based at Dublin Airport and Belfast International Airport. Two Boeing 767-300ERs were leased from EuroAtlantic Airways for these services, which connected Toronto to Lisbon, London, Paris, Dublin, Rome, Porto and Amsterdam, and connected Montreal to Paris.

In the summer of 2015, Glasgow and Barcelona were added to the list of European destinations. Since then, all flights from Montreal to Paris have been operated in partnership with sister company Corsairfly. As of 2015 Sunwing Airlines offers seasonal flights from Toronto and Amsterdam operated by Arkefly in addition to the Paris to Montreal service.

In January 2016 Sunwing Travel Group announced the 100% acquisition of United States-based Vacation Express.

Sunwing Airlines flies to a range of vacation destinations across the Caribbean, Mexico, Cuba, Central and South America including Varadero, Playa Santa Lucia in Camaguey, Punta Cana, Cancun and Montego Bay. Sunwing Airlines also flies regularly to destinations within the United States, including Orlando and Las Vegas.

During the summer months the airlines services destinations including Cancun, Grand Bahama and Punta Cana from its bases in the United States. As of summer 2015 the airline operated services from Atlanta, Baltimore, Buffalo, Charlotte, Cincinnati, Columbus, Houston, Nashville, New Orleans, Newark, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh. In Canada, the airline operates several domestic routes, including Toronto to Vancouver. Other connections include Stephenville, Gander and St John's from Toronto.

As of summer 2015, there were also regular flights between Montreal and Paris operated by Corsair, and between Toronto and Amsterdam operated by TUI Airlines Netherlands. Sunwing Airlines has codeshare agreements with the Dutch airline TUI Airlines Netherlands on their Summer Boeing-787 Dreamliner service between Toronto and Amsterdam.