The hero pilot who put lazy homeworkers to shame

All hail the “hero” pilot who was pictured helping to load luggage onto his plane after his flight from Manchester Airport to Crete was delayed by more than a day.

The Tui pilot, known only as Simon, left the cockpit to bundle baggage into the hold after the flight was delayed by 32 hours.

Given a 40-minute take-off window, the plucky pilot decided to take matters into his own hands to ensure that yet more people’s holidays weren’t ruined by the staff shortages and total incompetence that have plagued the nation’s airports.

Katherine Cox, who was among those travelling from Manchester to Crete, described him as the “hero of our holiday”. There have been calls for him to be recognised with some sort of award. I imagine he felt that he was just doing his job – or rather, someone else’s.

What a contrast with the example set by senior executives at Tui, who The Telegraph revealed this week have been working from abroad to improve their work-life balance, amid accusations that its customers have been abandoned during this week’s travel chaos.

Andrew Willis was among those enjoying “workations” while thousands of passengers faced the abject misery of horrendous airport queues and delayed and cancelled flights.

He said that he had “plenty of time” to enjoy his all-inclusive Tui hotel in Ibiza while working poolside, as the company insisted: “We’re proud of the flexible ways of working we offer our colleagues.”

On the contrary, Tui has absolutely nothing to be proud of after cancelling the flights of 34,000 passengers due to fly from Manchester Airport in June alone.

First the Passport Office, then the DVLA, now this. When will these organisations wake up to the fact that remote working just isn’t working for the people they are supposed to serve?