More capacity, greater flexibility and new destinations
TUI has announced what it describes as its “most ambitious summer programme ever” for Summer 2019 including extra capacity and new routes at Manchester Airport, Birmingham Airport and Cardiff Airport.
The UK Holiday company has said it will basing additional aircraft giving an increase in capacity of 110,000 at Manchester, 120,000 at Birmingham and 100,000 at Cardiff.
Manchester Airport sees an increase in flights to destinations including Montenegro, Zante, Turkey, Egypt and Mexico and a direct flight to Naples is added to the programme.
TUI UK’s Commercial Director Richard Sofer said: “Summer 2019 is the most ambitious programme we have ever introduced. We are focusing firmly on expanding access to our amazing range of holidays through an extended regional flying programming concentrated on the core destinations holidaymakers want to travel to, while offering the flexibility of holiday duration they want.
“We’ve increased our capacity by basing an additional aircraft in Manchester, adding more than 110,000 additional seats with new and additional flights for summer 2019. We are giving customers even more opportunity when booking their summer holidays with more 10 and 11 night holidays and additional flying days to popular destinations.”
Stephen Turner, Commercial Director at Manchester Airport, said: “It is pleasing to see TUI increase its presence here at the UK’s global gateway in the North by adding an extra aircraft, and 110,000 additional seats.
“I am sure the destinations and flexibility on holiday duration will prove incredibly popular with our 27.8m annual passengers.”
Birmingham Airport gets an increase on flights to Antalya and Dalaman in Turkey and also to Chania in Greece and Boa Vista in Cape Verde along with new routes to Split, Croatia, Agadir, Morocco, Halkidiki, Greece) and Izmir, Turkey.
Mr Sofer added: “We’ve increased our capacity by basing an additional aircraft in Birmingham, adding almost 120,000 additional seats and four new routes from Birmingham Airport for summer 2019. We are giving customers even more opportunity when booking their summer holidays with more 10 and 11 night holidays and flagship resorts opening across TUI and First Choice affirming our commitment to our exclusive hotel concepts”
Tom Screen, Acting Aviation Director for Birmingham Airport, said: “It’s great to see TUI expanding at Birmingham Airport, offering our passengers more choice to popular summer beach and weekend break destinations.
“Agadir in Morocco is currently an unserved route from Birmingham so we are particularly delighted to have this addition to our schedule for summer 2019.”
At Cardiff Airport, an additional based aircraft means 2 new routes to Naples and Dubrovnik (in addition to Hurgharda which was previously announced) along with extra flights to existing destinations including Mahon.
Speaking about Cardiff Airport Mr Sofer said: “We’ve increased our capacity by basing an additional aircraft in Cardiff, adding 100,000 additional seats and three new routes from Cardiff Airport for summer 2019. We are also giving customers even more opportunity when booking their summer holidays with more 10 and 11 night holidays.”
Deb Barber, CEO of Cardiff Airport, said: “Today’s fantastic news demonstrates TUI’s commitment to delivering even more choice for Welsh customers in response to recent passenger growth at our national airport. It’s particularly exciting to see new routes to Naples, Dubrovnik and Hurghada – which will be ideal for holiday makers and cruise enthusiasts alike, not to mention even more flights to Greece, Cyprus and the Balearics.”
The programme also gives holidaymakers the chance to book 10 or 11 night holidays instead of 7 or 14 giving greater flexibility for the length of your holiday.
TUI Airways, formerly Thomson Airways, has 64 aircraft operating to over 70 destinations in 30 countries. As well as being the first European customer for the 787 Dreamliner, 2018 will the new 737 MAX enter the fleet.
Other airports that have seen new routes and capacity increases include Bristol Airport, which gets an increase of around 10,000 seats and new routes to Halkidiki and Marrakech.
Summer 2019 holidays will be available to book from the 5th April.
