TUI bosses behind the chaos at UK airports were on ‘workatations’ doing their jobs next to swimming pools in the med to ‘improve their work-life balance’ as the problems began to mount.

Holidaymakers faced hours of delays and winding queues on Wednesday as TUI canceled more flights amid a staffing crisis at UK travel centres.

Such was the scale of the problems, a TUI pilot was forced to call the police to help hundreds of passengers disembark an ‘abandoned’ plane after being left sitting on the runway for three hours due to a lack of staff.

But as holidaymakers face chaos, the airline today admitted it is allowing members of its head office staff to take advantage of its ‘Workwide’ scheme – enabling staff to work outside the UK up to 30 days per year.

Andrew Willis, head of talent acquisition and workforce management, was among the senior employees to benefit, reports The Telegraph.

He posted online about working by the pool at an all-inclusive TUI hotel in Ibiza.

Mr Willis said: ‘When I finished work at 5pm the sun was still out until 8.30pm so I had plenty of time to swim and relax. In the evening I could then switch off wonderfully.

A corporate purchasing manager also shared how he worked from Norway while watching the Northern Lights.

And a senior product development manager described using the program to work from Gran Canaria.

He said: “I had made sure beforehand that the rooms had good wifi so I could work from my balcony or from the pool bar.”

Staff have spent 4,500 days working abroad under the scheme, which was launched in August last year.

On Wednesday, TUI took the decision to cut 43 flights a week – 186 in total until June carrying 37,000 passengers from Manchester – just hours after an extraordinary video emerged revealing that two police officers were enlisted to tell their customers furious that their holidays in Kos were now cancelled. as they waited in line to board the plane.

The airline, which decided to cut 8,000 jobs during the pandemic and lay off 11,000 of its staff, apologized to passengers and attributed the delays to “continuing challenges to our operations”.

British Airways, which has also canceled more than 100 flights from Heathrow Airport, is another airline to have celebrated staff working from home.

Last year it said it would allow employees to enjoy a mix of working in the office and from home.

The airline, which has cut more than 10,000 jobs in recent years, announced its approach of “providing more agile and flexible ways of working”.

Shocking scenes from across the country in recent weeks have shown holidaymakers stuck in huge queues, with some being forced to sleep on airport floors amid long delays.

Airlines are now struggling to rehire previously laid off workers, leading to shortages of security staff, ground attendants and check-in staff.

It comes as TUI is still selling out holidays from Manchester this weekend despite axing six daily flights from the airport labeled ‘hell on earth’ due to long queues and shops running out of food and water.

Despite the carnage in Manchester, 180 of Tui’s seven-day breaks to destinations including Mallorca, Gran Canaria, Morocco and Mexico are still selling for up to £1,500 pp, leaving on Friday.

A TUI spokesperson said: “We are proud of the flexible working methods we offer our colleagues who are in non-operational office roles.

“We have always had a culture of trust with our colleagues and have offered this style of working for several years, and well before the work from home trend after the pandemic.

A statement added: ‘The TUI Workwide scheme is not open to staff who work in fixed locations, such as pilots, cabin crew, retail and those working in aviation operational roles , such as in our operations control center where it is busy 24/7. an office location.

“We believe this balance is important to understanding the nature of our global travel business while having a fulfilling career and improving overall personal well-being.”