Jason Hall, 54, and his 13-year-old daughter were due to land at Birmingham Airport at 5.30pm on August 6 after a nine-day break in Cyprus – but a small aircraft crash-landed on the runway
Gemma Strong Lifestyle Writer and Shaurya Shaurya
16:22, 05 Oct 2025
Jason had to shell out £100 in rail costs to get home(Image: Stoke Sentinel/BPM Media)
A holidaymaker has pledged to never fly with TUI airline again after he and his daughter were left ‘abandoned’ overnight. Jason Hall, 54, had been on a nine-day trip to Cyprus with his 13 year old daughter, expecting to land at Birmingham Airport at 5.30pm on August 6.
However, their flight was diverted to Cardiff Airport due to a small aircraft crash-landing on the runway at Birmingham, arriving in Cardiff at 6.10pm. While Jason says “he can’t complain about the holiday”, he was left disappointed after landing in Cardiff.
The father daughter duo had great holiday in Cyprus but didn’t expect what happened when they returned(Image: Facebook)
Passengers on the August 6 flight were assured that return transport would be arranged for them, but according to Jason, this did not happen. He has since criticised the company’s ‘shocking’ after-care. For the biggest stories in Wales first, sign up to our daily newsletter here
Speaking to StokeonTrentLive, Jason said: “I can’t complain about the holiday – it was lovely. Coming back was where the trouble started. We were promised that we’d be provided with coach travel back to Birmingham – I didn’t mind, these things happen sometimes.
“We spent an hour-and-a-half collecting our bags because they weren’t expecting two massive 300-passenger TUI planes in. But once we’d got our things, we couldn’t see a single member of TUI staff in the whole airport. We left for the car park, and there were around 450 people stood waiting for these coaches.”
He added: “Eventually, a member of staff from Cardiff Airport – not a member of TUI staff – came out to tell us that three coaches had already been and gone. But if you think that a coach can hold roughly 50 people, that was nowhere near enough for the 600 of us who had landed.
“There were young families, children, kids in wheelchairs, all sorts of people left with no way of getting home. We stood in the car park for around an hour waiting for some sort of direction. Then everybody’s phone went off at the same time. It was an email from TUI informing us that they could not get us home and that we’d need to make our own arrangements.”
Stranded passengers at Cardiff Airport were informed that the airline was ‘experiencing difficulties securing transport’ and urged travellers to arrange their own journey home, reports the Mirror. TUI pledged to reimburse customers fully for any additional expenses incurred during their trip.
Jason Hall was heading home from a nine-day trip in Cyprus when his flight had to make an emergency landing(Image: Facebook)
“We were all just abandoned by TUI,” Jason explained. “There were students and people who didn’t have the money to pay for this up front. Some people were getting local taxis that were costing £350. Others were getting Ubers which were costing £450. Within half an hour, you couldn’t even book one. They’d all gone.
“I made a decision to get a nearby hotel room for me and my daughter, as I didn’t want to make her sleep in the airport. We got a little room down the road for £85. We couldn’t physically get home. There were no taxis and you couldn’t get a train until the next day.
“The next morning, we went to the station and caught four different trains. We went from Cardiff to Bristol, Bristol to Birmingham New Street, and Birmingham New Street to the airport. When we finally arrived back to the car, I’d got a parking fine.”
Jason’s catastrophic return journey resulted in him losing a day’s wages alongside the £85 hotel charge, £100 in rail costs, and a £60 parking fine.
However, he maintains TUI declined to reimburse his expenses completely.
He continued: “They only offered to pay for my train fares. I explained the rest of my additional costs, but they just weren’t interested. They made out as if I should have just gone straight back, but that wasn’t possible. The duty of care and customer service was just non-existent.
“It was absolutely shocking. I’ll never use them again. They’re fine so long as everything runs smoothly. But as soon as there’s some kind of incident, it seems they just don’t want to look after you at all. The bare minimum is ensuring they can get you to your destination – not just abandon you somewhere else.”
TUI has since reimbursed Jason completely.
A spokesperson for TUI UK and Ireland said: “We would like to apologise to all customers impacted by this unexpected flight diversion, which was unfortunately out of our control. We always strive to provide our customers with the best possible travel experience, and we understand that this situation impacted the end of their holiday.
“We have been in direct contact with all customers, including Mr Hall, and have arranged refunds for out-of-pocket expenses.”