Passengers criticize airline after their flight was delayed by 40 hours due to technical issues
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- Passengers traveling on a flight from Norwich to Majorca were delayed by 40 hours.
- The almost two-day delay was due to a technical issue with the aircraft, per The Norwich Evening News.
- One passenger described the incident as "complete chaos."
Passengers traveling on a flight from England to Spain were delayed by 40 hours due to technical issues with an aircraft.
The Norwich Evening News reported the news.
The flight, operated by a partner of the German travel company TUI, was due to depart from Norwich at 7.40 pm on Friday 29 July and head to the Spanish island of Majorca. However, it did not leave until 1.46 p.m. on Sunday 31 July, almost two days later, according to flight tracking website Flight Aware.
Many travelers only discovered the technical issues after they had already arrived at the airport, per The Norwich Evening News.
One passenger described the incident as "complete chaos." Alex Molina, 37, told the local news outlet that there had been a "real lack of communication" about when the flight would depart.
"I ended up hanging up with TUI's customer service after three and a half hours on the phone to them just because we couldn't get through," he said.
Molina said he and his family only found out that the flight was due to be delayed at 5 p.m. on Friday, half an hour before they were about to leave for the airport. He said they were "assured" the flight would leave that evening so they headed to the airport anyway.
When it was announced that the flight would not be leaving that night, passengers were forced to either drive home or stay in local hotels, the news outlet reported.
A spokesperson for TUI told Insider: "We fully understand customers' frustration due to the delay of flight AP5480 from Norwich to Palma, operated by an airline partner, scheduled to depart on 29th July which was unfortunately delayed due to a technical fault which needed to be repaired."
The company said it apologized to passengers and thanked them for their patience.