A flight from Norwich to Corfu was the second in a week to divert to Belfast, Northern Ireland, en route to a holiday destination. TUI Airways, which offers chartered and scheduled flights from the Norfolk airport, said the reason for the diversion was to pick up a crewmember.

Friday's flight to the Greek island of Corfu followed the similar diversion of a Mallorca bound on Tuesday, August 16th. The industry has been struggling with staffing shortages recently and has turned to interesting methods to fill the manning gaps

Getting to Greece

The flight to Corfu was scheduled to depart Norwich airport at 6:00 am on Friday. According to flight tracking data, it left shortly after expected before diverting to Belfast International in Northern Ireland, where it landed an hour later. The aircraft remained on the ground in Belfast for 33 minutes before departing for its initially scheduled destination of Corfu. The flight arrived on the Greek island shortly after lunch, less than two and half hours after its initial ETA of 11:00 am.

UPDATE: STATEMENT FROM THE AIRLINE

A spokesperson for TUI Airways acknowledged the delay and confirmed all passengers have now arrived safely in Corfu:

"We fully understand customers’ frustration due to the delay of flight TOM5528 from Norwich to Corfu on 19th August.

"We can confirm the flight had to make a short stop via Belfast to provide a replacement crew member for another TUI flight."

The diversion delayed the aircraft's return to Norwich, where it was due for a 2:10 pm flight to Dalaman, Turkey. The plane arrived three hours behind schedule and stayed on the ground in Turkey for just over an hour before departing with the waiting passengers shortly after midnight, landing in Norwich at 1:52 am the following day.

A temporary aircraft situation

The aircraft in question, a Boeing 737-800, operates under a wet lease to TUI Airways by Sunwing Airlines. The Canadian leisure company took delivery of the aircraft (registration C-FPRP) in May of 2015 and has operated it ever since. Sunwing Airlines sent over the aircraft and flight crew to Europe to run for the TUI Group for the summer season. A similar arrangement appears to be in place for TUI aircraft to spend time in Canada during the European winter season.

Delays can arise at some of TUI's smaller bases, such as the one in Norfolk, due to staffing issues, a spokesperson for the airline told the Norwich Evening News. TUI cabin crew are fully trained to operate on the Sunwing aircraft. However, the Sunwing pilots cannot operate on TUI aircraft, reducing the number of available replacement aircraft that TUI can send at any given time.

The airline had a similar occurrence with the same aircraft earlier this week. A morning flight on August 16th from Norwich to the Spanish island of Palma de Mallorca was also diverted to Belfast. Passengers arrived at the Baleric Island destination just over three and a half hours behind schedule. The aircraft successfully made up time on its return to Norwich, and the subsequent rotation to Herekion arrived just over two hours behind schedule.

Flights within most of Europe that are delayed over three hours are often eligible for financial compensation. Payments for flight disruptions cost the TUI Group €75 million ($76.5 m) in its third financial quarter, which ended on June 30th. The airline would have otherwise made its first quarterly post-pandemic profit.

Source: Norwich Evening News, FlightRadar24.com