TUI cancels more holidays to Greece, Spain and Italy until July

Holiday booking company TUI has cancelled more trips to Greece, Spain and Italy until July as it was announced that Freedom Day is being pushed back by four weeks. 

It has already been forced to cancel bookings before during the pandemic so it is believed that the latest decision is a bid to avoid losing more money. 

The latest holidays to get the axe, according to Travel Weekly, are: 

Up to and including July 4: Aruba, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece – Crete (Chania), Kavala, Kefalonia, Mykonos, Preveza, Samos, Santorini, Skiathos, Thessaloniki, Italy, Jamaica, Malta, Spain – Mainland Spain, Formentera, Mallorca, Ibiza, Menorca, La Palma, all Tui, Lakes & Mountains destinations.

Up to and including July 11: Bulgaria, Cape Verde, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Mexico, Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey.

The company also had to cancel all holidays which include non-Tui flights to Indonesia, Maldives, Mauritius, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand and UAE up to including July 11. 

The company told Travel Weekly: ‘We want to offer our customers flexibility and choice this summer, so where borders are open and FCDO advice allows travel, we will operate to those destinations as planned.

‘We are constantly reviewing our holiday programme and cancellations in line with the government updates every three weeks, with the next update expected on 24 June.

‘All customers will be contacted as soon as possible if there is any change to their booking.’ 

‘All customers impacted by these cancellations will be contacted directly and will be able to request a full cash refund, or to change to a later date or alternative holiday and receive a booking incentive,’ Tui added.

‘If we need to cancel any future holidays because of updated government guidance, we will be in touch directly and aim to give customers at least seven days’ notice.

‘We would like to thank our customers for their understanding at this time.’ 

It comes after furious Tory MPs lashed out at Boris Johnson as he prepares to delay Freedom Day and the end of lockdown for four weeks.  

The Prime Minister will urge Britons to be patient as he announces that the relaxation of Covid restrictions will be pushed back until July 19 because of the rampaging Indian variant, to allow more people to receive their second vaccine dose. 

But he is set to offer an olive branch to some industries that will be worst-hit by the delay, including lifting the cap on the number of guests who can attend weddings. He is also expected to permit more outdoor seated spaces at sporting events.

The concessions come as Tory MPs join hospitality and other business leaders in venting their fury at the postponement, warning it will cost firms millions of pounds.

The Prime Minister faced calls for a ‘break clause’ to cut short the lockdown extension after two or three weeks’ if the data allows it.  

Conservative MP Damian Green has told the Westminster Hour that there should be a break clause after two or three weeks of the extension.

‘I get the point that because of the deltas variant the cases have gone up, hospitalisation has gone up a bit but not a lot and is below the level of some of the Sage predictions of a few months ago,’ he said.

‘So I think if there is a delay I hope it’s only for a few weeks and I think if it is as long as a month then there should be a break clause after two or maybe three weeks, to say that if we can tell by then that the rise in cases is not lading to a sort of rise in the serious illness that sends people into hospital, then we can unlock earlier.’