Tui cancels all Edinburgh flights until October

The travel firm has grounded eight summer holiday routes from the capital.

Tui flights will not resume from Edinburgh and Aberdeen until October.

Tui today cancelled 16 summer routes from Scotland, adding Edinburgh and Inverness to the affected airports.

The move was described as the “most terrible news” by the Scottish Passenger Agents’ Association and said job losses were inevitable.

It follows Spain – Scotland’s most popular overseas holiday destination – not being included in the Scottish Government’s list of countries which did not require travellers to quarantine for 14 days on their return.

The Tui decision follows Spain not being included in the non-quarantine list for Scottish passengers.

Tui routes from Edinburgh which will not operate are to Dalaman, Palma, Tenerife, Paphos, Lanzarote, Corfu, Antalya and Larnaca.

The move also affects its sole rout from Inverness to Palma.

It comes after Tui on Monday cancelled its Aberdeen flights to Palma, Dalaman, Ibiza, Rhodes, Corfu, Reus and Tenerife.

A spokesperson for the firm said: “In light of the unprecedented halt on worldwide travel, our teams have been busy reviewing and planning for travel post-Covid-19.

‘Incredibly difficult decision’

"We’re taking a dynamic approach to restarting our holidays, in line with Government advice and the evolving demand for travel, focusing first on flying from our largest UK airports to destinations.

"We’ve therefore had to make the incredibly difficult decision to cancel our flying programme from Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Inverness this summer.

“We plan to resume flights from Aberdeen from 4 October and Edinburgh from 6 October for the half-term holidays and will be taking people on their ski holiday this winter.

"We look forward to operating from Inverness airport again in 2021.

BACKGROUND: Scots flying to Spain from English airports 'with wry smile'

"We know how much our customers value flying from our regional airports, so we thank them for their patience during this extraordinary time.”

A spokesman for Edinburgh Airport said: “We warned the decision to exclude Spain from restriction-free travel would directly impact on Scotland and this is proof that airlines are already beginning to change their plans.

“We have been told this is a four nations approach but with Scotland the only one in the UK not to lift restrictions, it is imperative that the evaluation criteria being used by the Scottish Government is made public.”

Joanne Dooey, president of the Scottish Passenger Agents’ Association says, “This is the most terrible news for travellers, the travel sector and importantly, for the whole Scottish economy.

“We fully support the need to keep travellers and the wider Scottish population safe but we have been warning of the likelihood of losing flight routes for the past few months.

"Tui pulling out of Aberdeen and now Inverness and Edinburgh is staggering news and will be such a disappointment for those who were booked on these flights.

“Cancellations of whole schedules like this will inevitably lead to job losses."

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