TUI, the UK’s largest holiday company, has announced its holiday programme for summer 2020 with the addition of 30,000 seats from Cardiff Airport, 98,000 seats from Newcastle Airport and 194,000 seats from Birmingham Airport.
TUI UK&I’s Director of Aviation Planning, Karen Switzer, said: ‘Earlier this month TUI announced an additional two million seats to many holiday destination favourites and today the majority of these seats go on sale for summer 2020. We are delighted that our new additions launched today provide holidaymakers departing from our regional airports with even more choice when deciding where to go next summer on holiday. The customer is at the heart of everything we do and this additional growth to some of our customer’s favourite holiday hotspots demonstrates our continued commitment for people to discover their smile with us.’
TUI said that it will introduce new 10 and 11 night holidays to mid-haul hot spots Antalya, Turkey and Gran Canaria in the Canaries. Cardiff Airport will also see additional flying days to Dalaman, Turkey and Tenerife in the Canaries.
Spencer Birns, Chief Commercial Officer at Cardiff Airport, said: ‘We want to thank TUI for recognising the opportunity to add an extra 15,000 holidays from Cardiff next summer. The news demonstrates TUI’s commitment to delivering even more choice for Welsh customers in addition to this year’s passenger growth at our national Airport.’
At Newcastle, TUI has added new destinations including Santorini and Skiathos in Greece, and Hurghada in Egypt. The new routes are on sale with Santorini flights operating on Tuesdays, Hurghada on Fridays and Skiathos on Wednesdays. TUI will also introduce new 10 and 11 night holidays to mid-haul hotspot Antalya in Turkey, increased frequency to Dalaman in Turkey on Mondays as well as additional flying days to Orlando Sanford, Florida; Tenerife, Canaries; Palma, Spain and Larnaca, Cyprus.
Leon McQuaid, Head of Aviation Development at Newcastle International Airport, said: ‘We have received countless requests for services to be restored to Hurghada, Skiathos and Santorini, so we are extremely pleased that TUI is putting these routes on sale for summer 2020.’
As well as the three new routes, TUI has also added more flying days to some of its existing destinations including additional direct flights to Florida on its state-of-the-art Dreamliner.
At Birmingham, TUI has added new destinations including Almeria in Spain and Split in Croatia, with Almeria flights operating on Sundays and Split on Fridays. TUI has added 16 additional flying days across 11 of its current destinations from Birmingham Airport, including to Antalya, Tenerife and Rhodes. The summer 2020 programme will also see an increase in the frequency of flights operating to Ibiza and Palma in Spain and Mahon in Menorca.
Tom Screen, Aviation Director from Birmingham Airport, said: ‘We are delighted that TUI has added even more capacity and two new routes to its portfolio from Birmingham Airport during summer 2020. These new routes by TUI means that Midlanders have over 40 direct destinations to choose from with the UK’s largest holiday company.’