Lisa McLoughlin
A co-pilot has been praised by passengers after he was spotted helping load bags onto a plane after a 30-hour delay at Manchester Airport.
Jenny Cook, a passenger on the plane destined for Crete, took to Twitter to urge travel agency TUI to give the pilot, Simon Ainscough, an 'excellence award' for going above and beyond his duties.
Jenny tweeted: “Please RT @TUIUK @TUIGroup can we get Simon the co pilot of the TOM2744 flying from Manchester on 30th May an excellence award?
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“He is out on the tarmac in the rain helping to load the bags to try and get us on our way after 30 hours delay so far” (sic).
Footage shared in response to Jenny’s tweet showed Simon donning a TUI hi-vis vest, assisting a lone baggage handler and lifting heavy luggage in the rain to help get a severely delayed airplane off the ground.
The pilot was applauded by passengers on the flight, which had been grounded for 30 hours due to baggage handling delays, on social media.
One penned: "Co-pilot loading bags on our flight after 32 hour delay. Ground staff stood watching him. All delays caused by baggage handling issues at Manchester airport".
"Brilliant job Simon, we're all looking out the windows of the plane cheering him on," another shared.
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A third added: "Go Simon whoop whoop... This legend deserves a payrisr" (sic).
HR specialist Jenny later explained on Twitter that they 'whizzed through' Heraklion Airport following their travel chaos in the UK.
She added: "We are all so grateful to him! We’ve whizzed through Heraklion airport in minutes. What a different experience over here!".
While Jenny and her cohort were able to jet off, other TUI customers were left ‘outraged’ after the travel company cancelled their holidays via text following ‘nightmare’ eight-hour delays.
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Holidaymakers hoping to jet to Greek island Kos on Saturday (28 May) faced a four-hour wait to get through security followed by a four-hour flight delay because a "pilot wasn't available".
Flight TOM2680 from Manchester to Kos was supposed to depart at 3.45pm, but after hours of waiting around, families were texted by TUI saying their trips – including flights and all-inclusive hotels – had been cancelled.
The tweet comes a week after pictures emerged showing queues at the northern airport snaking all the way out into the carpark at terminal three, prompting many holiday goers to complain on social media.
Manchester Airport told LADbible in a statement at the time: "Queues out to the car park are actually pretty standard given space inside some of the terminals is quite tight so they are often purposefully used to ease congestion inside."