Newcastle passengers stuck in Tenerife as problems continue after global IT outage

Passengers on a flight bound for Newcastle airport have told ITV Tyne Tees they will not be returning to the region until tomorrow (21 July) due to the IT outage.

Angela Warne was due to fly back to the North East from Tenerife with TUI on Friday 19 July, but due to the global outage, her flight was delayed indefinitely.

Newcastle airport itself has not been affected, but organisations it works with have, so people are being urged to check before they travel.

The problem was caused by a flawed update rolled out by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, which knocked many organisations around the world offline, causing flight and train cancellations and crippling some healthcare systems.

Some experts now warn it would be weeks for systems to fully recover.

Ms Warne has spent two weeks on the largest of the Canary Islands but upon arriving at the airport last night (19 July) was forced to sleep in the terminal as her family were unable to get accommodation when their flight did not depart as planned.

She told ITV Tyne Tees she is concerned about getting back to the UK as both her and her husband work for the NHS and are due back at work on Monday.

Ms Warne said: "We know there is a Jet2 Flight out to Newcastle tomorrow and we've looked at whether we book those, but when we spoke to a TUI rep they said, 'you can but we can't then guarantee we'll be able to refund you the money as they might be able to find us a flight sooner.'"

Earlier today (20 July), she says she was told that the earliest flight they could board to Newcastle would be tomorrow, so the family took the decision to book a flight to Leeds which will arrive in the early hours. They will then need to get a taxi back to the North East.

Ms Warne said she felt sorry for the TUI representatives on the ground as there was little they could do, saying "they're just getting inundated with complaints, lots of really angry and tired people who all want to get home. They're not being told anything either so it's really hard from their situation as well."

She continued: "As soon as you see a rep, everyone races toward them with further questions and getting quite angry so it's not a nice scene."

A spokesperson for TUI said: "Due to the global IT issue at airports and airlines around the world yesterday, TUI’s overall service level was heavily impacted and we would like to apologise to everyone affected.

Whilst the original IT issue was outside of our control, an essential system needed to run our airline operation remained unstable late into last night. We therefore made the difficult decision to cancel a number of outbound flights and delayed a number of inbound flights returning to the UK.

"We are very sorry to all those customers impacted as we understand how disappointing this would have been and recognise that many customers were already at the airport waiting for their departure. We would like to reassure customers due to return home from their holiday that we are working on their new flight times and we will be in contact directly with further details."

The company added that it is working "extremely hard" to get people to their destinations as soon as possible, and that customers due to travel over the weekend should regularly check the TUI website for updates.

Hundreds of passengers have been affected at airports across the country including Stansted, as summer holidays get under way