TUI flights to Algarve

NoodleDoodleMan

Can any of the our airline watchers clarify why TUI appear to have no flights to the Algarve from many airports.

I was trying to find a package holiday from Glasgow or Edinburgh online and the website kept saying there were all gone.

It is a particularly popular hotel, however I think flights are the problem, not the accommodation.

The current Sensimar/Gold brochure has no flights listed from numerous airports, the north and Scotland are most badly served it seems.

Caz3121

The options for Faro airport (from their wikipedia page)
Glasgow
BA charter (seasonal) - I think may be Barrhead Travel
Easyjet
Jet2
Edinburgh
BA charter (as above)
Jet2
Ryanair
Looks like the furthest north TUI flights are from Newcastle, maybe there is not enough demand for a 4th carrier from GLA or EDI

NoodleDoodleMan

Thanks.

The young lady I spoke with said "they had taken the route off us" - but I could not figure out who "they" were.

TUI top brass ?

Previously there were Thomsons Thursday flights from GLA and EDI, then the latter stopped, followed by the former.

I would have thought there was enough trade to a popular resort area like the Algarve to justify at least one TUI flight there weekly from Scotland.

Best to assume nothing these days.

bagand96

I would have thought there was enough trade to a popular resort area like the Algarve to justify at least one TUI flight there weekly from Scotland.

Best to assume nothing these days.

There probably is enough trade to justify one (or more) weekly flights by TUI from Scotland to Faro. They could probably even do it and make money. However its how much money theyll make. Its likely that they can make far more money flying to other destinations hence why Faro has been dropped and other destinations flown instead. Obviously they only have a finite amount of aircraft so theyll fly them where they make the most money.

Sometimes in these situations theyll get another carrier to operate, or take an allocation on someone elses flights. I know Thomas Cook use easyJet flights but not sure TUI have an agreement with them. The likelihood of TUI using Jet2 or Ryanair are probably close to nil.

It is surprising, but then I guess they have the data, and there are allegedly some huge regional variations in the popularity of certain destinations.

NoodleDoodleMan

Interesting observations, thanks.

It did cross my mind that they pulled the aircraft to service more profitable routes - but there are numerous well used airports south of Hadrian's Wall that have no Faro flights as well.

Unfortunately the GOLD hotel we fancy is only available through TUI, and they won't sell accommodation only.

If they did, I'd be happy to book Jet2 as they have become a better airline for holiday flights IMO.

bagand96

Unfortunately the GOLD hotel we fancy is only available through TUI, and they won't sell accommodation only.

Was a time about 4 years ago I managed to book accommodation only via the German TUI site (when the UK arm was still Thomson)

Was in a similar situation to you, Thomson flights didnt fit the dates I wanted. The hotel was TUI Group exclusive and you couldnt book it accommodation only with Thomson.

But the German website let you. With the help of Chrome browser with inbuilt translation it was a breeze! No one batted an eyelid when we arrived at the hotel, they even invited us to the Thomson welcome meeting.

Not sure if this loophole would still work. As the TUI group become ever more integrated they may have streamlined policies across the group. Also now the web address is TUI.com for everyone, it might be more difficult to access the German/Belgian/Scandinavian sites.

From memory I think I started my search via the trivago.de site.

NoodleDoodleMan

Thanks.

Firefox won't let me into tui.de

Update - I've discovered that the hotel website accepts direct bookings, so it can't be exclusive to TUI. Now I'll need to see if suitable flights are available.