Terminal cancer TUI cancels dying orphan’s final holiday as she sits on plane

A girl with terminal cancer missed her last family holiday when her flight to Tenerife was cancelled just before take-off.

Huw Davies, from Porthcawl, Wales, said his son booked the holiday with TUI as a surprise for his sister.

But Mr Davies, 59, and almost a dozen of his relatives had to leave the plane at Cardiff Airport on Tuesday after the travel agency emailed passengers to say the package holiday was cancelled.

The lunchtime flight was delayed by an hour, and travellers then sat on the runway for another hour while a fault was fixed on the plane.

“It was going to be her last family holiday – and we just got booted off this flight.

“We asked my daughter where she wanted to go, because she’s recently lost her mother. She wanted to go back to where we took my wife on holiday for the first time,” he told Wales Online.

Mr Davies is £9,000 out of pocket following the cancellation, which is due to be refunded.

TUI UK said: “We’d like to apologise to customers on flight TOM6286 from Cardiff to Tenerife today, which was cancelled due to operational issues. Customers affected by flight cancellations will receive a full refund for their holiday within 14 days.

“The May half-term holidays are always an incredibly busy period with many looking to get away, and we understand that they will have been looking forward to these holidays for a long time. The increase in people going on holidays combined with operational and supply chain issues, has meant that a small number of our flights have been impacted.”