A TUI Airways flight delayed 26 hours because of, among others, toilet paper

Flight delays or cancellations can occur for many reasons, including adverse weather conditions or technical issues on the aircraft. But this TUI fly flight was delayed for a day for a mix of rather unusual reasons.

Passengers on TUI Airways flight BY718 from Manchester, UK, to Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, were due to depart at 09.55 on Thursday 15 December. However, they did not board until the middle of the afternoon of the same day.

The reason behind this first delay was unclear. While the company was talking about the weather conditions and ground handling, the captain told a completely different story. According to him, the plane needed to be replenished with toilet paper and hand towels.

According to a passenger quoted by The Sun newspaper on Friday, the pilot apologised and said the catering company had delivered fruit drinks instead toilet rolls and hand towels.

At around 16:30, TUI staff stocked up on toilet paper from another plane. However, the flight was postponed to the next day, as the crew had already reached their legal working hours.

The passengers were accommodated in a hotel.

The flight from Manchester to Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, took off Friday morning, 16 December, at 11:45, thus almost 26 hours late. It was operated by the same Boeing 737 MAX 8 registered G-TUMH that had been idle since the previous day.

TUI has apologised for the delay. “We are very sorry for the customers of flight TOM718 who unfortunately were delayed for a whole day, due to a combination of weather conditions, airport congestion and a minor technical issue that caused the flight crew to reach their maximum legal working hours,” said a TUI spokesperson.