Ormskirk tour operator charters aircraft for stranded long-haul travellers across Asia

Ormskirk tour operator Distant Journeys chartered an aircraft to bring customers stranded across Asia home to the UK.

The company had faced severely limited commercial flight options due to global travel disruption and Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office travel guidance.

Staff from the tour operator worked around the clock to identify safe routes home for customers stranded across Asia, Australasia and Africa, whose flights were due to route through Dubai, Abu Dhabi or Qatar on their journey back to the UK.

Where viable alternatives were available, hundreds of customers have been successfully repatriated on commercial flights via other parts of the world.

However, for many travellers staying in destinations across Asia, suitable routes that avoided the Middle East were extremely limited.

Rather than risk their customers being stranded overseas indefinitely, Distant Journeys chartered an Airbus A350 from Colombo in Sri Lanka to London Stansted at significant cost to the business, which was not passed on to customers.

Those staying in locations such as India, Nepal, Thailand, Bali, Laos, Cambodia and Singapore were flown from their nearest airport to Colombo and accommodated overnight before joining the return flight, alongside the many customers who had been stranded in Sri Lanka initially.

A specialist team from the company’s head office also travelled to Sri Lanka to support local teams and assist passengers with their return journey.

Customers are now being transported onwards to their original UK departure airports.

Daniel Acarnley, managing director of Distant Journeys, said: “We are extremely grateful for the patience our customers have shown while we worked to secure the quickest and safest way possible to return them to the UK.

“Hundreds of customers were able to return home on commercial flights where alternatives were available. However, for many travelling across Asia, there were simply no viable routes that avoided the Middle East.

“Rather than risk those customers being stranded overseas for an uncertain period, we took the decision to organise a dedicated charter flight to bring them safely home together.

“Situations like this highlight why many travellers value the reassurance of booking with a reputable and responsible tour operator. When disruption happens, we deploy our teams on the ground to support customers and make sure they get home safely.”

He added: “Our teams have also been supporting customers in resort. Under the Package Travel Regulations, tour operators are required to provide a minimum of three additional nights’ accommodation in these circumstances.

"We chose to extend this to six nights at our own cost to help ease the burden on customers facing uncertainty while waiting to return home.”

In total, almost a thousand Distant Journeys customers were overseas at the start of the disruption, and most have now been returned safely to the UK, with arrangements for the small number still travelling being finalised.