Travel begins to return to normal following storm chaos
The UK travel industry is returning to normal this week, following the recent bad weather that disrupted flights and services.
As reported by TravelMole on Friday, snow storms caused by the Beast from the East and Storm Emma forced several agencies and call centres to close, in addition to creating severe travel disruption.
Travel 2 re-opened its Glasgow call centre on Saturday after deciding to shut on Wednesday evening.
On its Twitter page it posted: "A big Thank You to all our lovely agents for your patience and understanding over the last few days #bringonspring."
Edinburgh Airport said on Saturday it was ‘returning to normal operations’, adding: "We’d like to thank everyone for their ongoing patience and support while we’ve battled with #BeastFromTheEast."
Nearby Glasgow Airport said: "While we are currently operational there are a large number of delays and cancellations. We continue to urge passengers to check the status of their flights with their airlines before travelling to the airport."
TUI has asked passengers to check regularly for changes to flights and has advised of a handful of changes to services.
For example, TOM6659 Gran Canaria to Cardiff has been rescheduled to 20:30 local time this evening from its original flight time of 19:00 on March 3.
TOM6715 Malaga to Cardiff and TOM5724 Luton to Lanzarote, both due to fly on Sunday, were rescheduled to early Monday morning.
Flight TOM5725 Lanzarote to Luton, scheduled for 13:45 on Sunday has been rescheduled for 14:15 local time today.
In all instances, customers ‘are being provided with hotel accommodation and meals at appropriate times’, TUI said.
Best Western Great Britain reported a 15% increase in cancellations in the first 48 hours of last week’s bad weather and estimates that, by Friday alone, cancellations cost its member properties nearly £90,000 in lost bookings revenue.
The hotel group estimates the UK hotel industry as a whole lost in excess of £4 million in the first 48 hours of last week’s storm.
Andrew Denton, director of communications at Best Western Great Britain, said: "It’s been an unpredictable and pretty devastating week for the industry as the weather has impacted most of Britain this time, rather than being concentrated in one area."
Meanwhile, staff at Dublin Airport saved a baby hare and her family from deep snow and took them into the warm.
The rescue was filmed on mobile phone and posted on the airport’s Twitter feed. It was viewed nearly 70,000 times in 12 hours.
The baby hare was named Emma, after the storm.
Lisa
Lisa joined Travel Weekly nearly 25 years ago as technology reporter and then sailed around the world for a couple of years as cruise correspondent, before becoming deputy editor. Now freelance, Lisa writes for various print and web publications, edits Corporate Traveller’s client magazine, Gateway, and works on the acclaimed Remembering Wildlife series of photography books, which raise awareness of nature’s most at-risk species and helps to fund their protection.
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