Indemnización por vuelo retrasado de TUI Airways

TUI Airways delays: what is specific

TUI’s long-haul holiday flights fly out and back with the same aircraft; a delay leaving Cancún or Orlando arrives in the UK with it. That knock-on delay is compensable unless TUI proves the original cause was extraordinary — ask what delayed the outbound sector.

Both directions are covered: departures from the UK under UK261, and the return from an EU airport also under EU261. The amounts are equivalent; long-haul returns from outside Europe on a UK carrier are covered under UK261.

How the 3 hours are measured on TUI Airways flights

The delay that counts is the arrival delay at your final destination, measured when at least one aircraft door opens — not the departure delay, the touchdown time or the block-on time. Compare it with the scheduled arrival on your booking. A TUI Airways flight that leaves 3 hours 30 late but makes up time to arrive 2 hours 50 late is not compensable; one that leaves on time and arrives 3 hours late is.

How much TUI Airways owes for a delay

Under UK261 the amount depends only on the great-circle distance of the flight (or of the whole journey on a single booking), never on the ticket price: £220, £350 or £520 per passenger. On flights over 3,500 km TUI Airways may halve the amount (£260 instead of £520) when the arrival delay is between 3 and 4 hours; from 4 hours the full amount applies. The table above shows the amounts on TUI Airways’s typical routes.

Care while you wait

From 2 hours of delay (short flights), 3 hours (medium) or 4 hours (long) TUI Airways must offer meals and refreshments in proportion to the wait, two phone calls or e-mails, and a hotel with transport if you are kept overnight. If it does not, keep receipts for reasonable expenses and claim them separately — they come on top of the fixed compensation. After 5 hours you may also abandon the trip and claim a full refund of the unused ticket.

What TUI Airways may argue

Only extraordinary circumstances exempt TUI Airways from paying: severe weather, air-traffic-control restrictions or strikes, security incidents, bird strikes, external strikes. Technical faults, crew shortages, late inbound aircraft from an earlier rotation and TUI Airways’s own staff strikes are not extraordinary. The burden of proof is on TUI Airways: ask for the precise cause of your flight’s delay and the measures it took, and treat a bare “operational reasons” as no answer.

How to claim a delay from TUI Airways

1. Note the actual arrival time (arrivals board, flight-tracker screenshot, TUI Airways’s own notification).
2. Ask TUI Airways in writing for the reason for the delay.
3. Submit the claim through TUI Airways’s official channel (https://www.tui.co.uk/destinations/contact-us), quoting the booking reference, the flight, the date, the arrival delay and the amount per passenger.
4. If TUI Airways refuses or does not reply within 8 weeks, escalate to AviationADR; a court claim remains available within the limitation period of the departure country.