Boeing 737 MAX planes from American airlines are also on the ground, as here in Washington
It concerned 111 delays of more than three hours. Last year there were 55 flights. Normally, TUI is one of the airlines that flies most on time, says EUclaim. TUI stands out this summer because in total the number of flight delays has actually decreased, despite the major fuel outage at Schiphol.
According to EUclaim, this is mainly due to the Boeing 737 Max being held to ground, after two aircraft of this type crashed within a few months. On a fleet of 9 aircraft, TUI Fly Netherlands was the only Dutch airline to fly 3 Boeing 737-Max.
No spare aircraft available
Because the aircraft was no longer available, a run was made on replacement aircraft in the busiest months. “That makes you much less flexible to deal with delays,” Petra Kok of TUI told BNR on Thursday. ‘The market is tight so you cannot leave a spare device at Schiphol. If there is a malfunction with a device, a domino effect is created for the other flights.
Cost stories
According to TUI, the coming period will remain challenging, although Kok does not expect major problems because it will be less busy in the coming months and it will be easier to hire a spare aircraft. TUI says to be in conversation with Boeing about the possible recourse of the extra costs to the American aircraft manufacturer. The travel organization does not comment on the status of these conversations.
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The fact that the number of delays has decreased across the board is, according to EUclaim, because this summer only the major fuel outage at Schiphol on 24 July caused a great deal of delay. That led to 421 cancellations and long delayed flights. The summer of 2018 stood out because of the large number of canceled flights, mainly caused by the many strikes of air traffic control in Marseille.
This year’s absolute record comes from the KLM flight KL 789 from Sint Maarten to the Netherlands, with a 50-hour delay. The aircraft had technical problems after landing on Sint Maarten. It took a long time for experts to fly in to solve the problems.
