Fourth time lucky! Aberdeen flight from Tenerife finally arrives back in Granite City two days late

It was meant to initially depart the Spanish island at 8.25pm on Sunday.

By Chris Cromar

August 22 2023, 9:45 pm

The flight arrived back in Aberdeen this evening. Image: Shutterstock.

A group of holidaymakers from Aberdeen who were stranded in Tenerife have arrived back in the Granite City – nearly two days late.

It was fourth time lucky for the stranded travellers waiting to get home, with the Tui flight was delayed three times over the past two days.

Initially, it was due to depart Tenerife South Airport at 8.25pm on Sunday night but was cancelled with the passengers being put up in a hotel overnight.

Aberdeen International Airport entrance. — The flight arrived back to Aberdeen tonight. Image: Kami Thomson/DCT Media.

The postponement was blamed on a diversion due to the weather on its inbound journey, with stranded passenger Ashleigh Ritchie telling The P&J that the travel firm had “absolutely no communication” with passengers.

After the first cancellation, the flight back to Scotland was scheduled to leave at 1.35pm yesterday afternoon, however, it was called off again.

In an e-mail from Tui to the affected passengers, it explained that it had been postponed due to a member of the cabin crew being “unable to operate the flight”.

Man and woman sitting next to each other. as thier Aberdeen flight was delayed for a third time. — Ashleigh Ritchie and her partner Craig Forbes, as well as their family, were delayed in Tenerife. Image: Ashleigh Ritchie.

Passengers were then told that they would leave at 11.30pm yesterday, however, for the third time their flight was cancelled and had to be put up in accommodation.

Tui confirmed that their crew – who were already in Tenerife – needed to have their legal rest hours before being able to work.

Today’s flight left Tenerife at 2.45pm this afternoon and arrived back in Aberdeen at 6.43pm, with Mrs Ritchie saying: “I’ve never been so happy to be back home. The Last couple of days have been stressful for all involved.”

Tui apology to Aberdeen passengers

A spokeswoman for Tui said: “We acknowledge the significant disruption for customers on the Tenerife to Aberdeen flight and we’d like to apologise for this experience.

“Customers were provided with overnight accommodation in one of our all-inclusive resorts, transfers, meals and a holiday voucher as a gesture of goodwill. Customers will also be entitled to claim EU261 compensation.”

“We do our best to get customers to and from their holidays on time and due to a number of unfortunate external factors, we recognise on this occasion we fell short of our usual high standards.

“We’d again like to apologise for any inconvenience caused and thank customers for their patience and understanding.”