Very surprised to be first "victim" of Tor Air's Gatwick fiasco to Santorini on Tues 13th Sept (sorry, meant to say Weds 14th!). Some passengers became so frustrated and irate (to the point of police being brought in and an arrest made) that I thought reports would already have been made on websites such as this.

I know that all airlines suffer delays sometime, but the size of Tor Air's "fleet" (ha-ha!), obviously contributed to the length of time we were stuck at Gatwick (18 hours from orig Dep time). The lack of info forthcoming from Tor Air meant that there were a lot of "chinese whispers" and misinformation between the stranded passengers during the course of that long night. No hotels for Tor Air clients!

It was due to go at 16.05. On checkin we were told the plane was being repaired following a bird-strike, and more info would be given at 19.00. They then gave a departure time of 20.30 and we duly boarded. We so very nearly made it to the runway, but then the pilot started throwing it about and doing some very heavy braking before declaring himself not happy with the rather ancient and tatty plane and taking us back to the gate.

Almost no info forthcoming between then and about 01 am, when the Departures board changed to 08.30am next day. Refreshment vouchers of £4, then £10, and finally £6 were issued (and only found out about through word of mouth from the stalwarts hanging around the Swissport desk). Many of us spent half the night in the pub, trying to ease our pain. Blankets were issued, but as some of my fellow sufferers took 2, 3 or even 4 each (yeah, thanks a bunch you greedy ) many of us did not get even one and had a very unpleasant night on the seating. Some people requested their luggage offloaded and went home, saying they could never trust the plane, and foregoing their holiday.

Even in the morning our troubles were not over. One bus was held up an hour while they looked for a missing passenger. Or had he gone home ? Or been arrested? Whatever, take-off slot missed and did not get away til 10.15am.

In the end the flight was fine. The old plane was ok and Tor Air cabin staff were nice. The same goes for our return flight on an equally old plane belonging to Aurela Airlines (Tor Air obviously now completely run out of planes!!)

A very stressful experience and very damaging to Olympic Holidays reputation. I heard many people say they would never book with Olympic again.

I have just booked a holiday of a life time to a small greek island that is off the tourist trail. I can only book this fantastic villa for two with our own infinity pool through Olympic Holidays and the only airline being used is Tor Air. I'm going as a celebration in passing my degree (I'm a mature student), something I though I'd never achieve. I've been distressed by the comments on this forum and am unsure about whether to cancel and lose the deposit, I am a student so money is tight!
Before giving up work to do my degree I travelled afar with different airlines two of which were very reputable but we had a horrific time, the one we upgraded and still it was horrendous.
The question is do I risk it and suffer the delays mentioned and maybe an unsafe aircraft, a picture painted from some reviews, or do I cancel.
Another point I should consider is that the very damaging and horrendous views about this airline, could they be made by someone working for another airline, or got an axe to grind or just wants to put them out of business?
Decisions, decisions, decisions, I suppose I have until March but then its taken me four weeks to take the plunge with this holiday.
Shame on you people who have not been honest with your postings, I hope you are happy that you are now causing me a few sleepless nights! Please please can someone give me an objective account bearing in mind that sometimes delays are out of the airline control. If you are travelling from a big airport there are many operators and it could be connected to their inefficiency. Hopefully there is someone out there who can give a more objective view, someone who isn't still angry and had time to reflect! If you can't, please do not reply to this posting.
Thanking you all in anticipation.

Wingers
your villa sounds fab.

My (honest) experience of my one-and-only Tor Air return flight is on the first page.

However, I understand they have very few planes (3?) so when things go wrong, they can quickly escalate into big delays for later flights.

There's many more views of Tor Air on Trip Advisor but as that website is not moderated as well as this one, you'll have to wade though some rants and repeated postings.

As for safety - do you really think pilots and crew would fly several times daily on an unsafe aircraft?
Would an unsafe aircraft even be allowed to operate at all?

There are also some views on allegations of 'unsafe aircraft' in the many Tor Air threads if you can find them.

Don't panic yet! I do know some smaller companies that used Torair flights are looking at alternatives for next year (although choice is limited), maybe Olympic are too. Definite flight operators & times will not be set in stone yet & I'm sure there is a lot of discussion going on as many TOs got complaints about their flights when Torair were used. I do have to add that the ones to our area were pretty good compared to some of the stuff I've read, only a couple of bad delays in the whole season, many weeks it landed on time.
Where are you going? You might not have to do a package, DIY is easy & you can use better airlines, at least you choose which one!

Thanks for the advise of booking separately, this is something I usually do but unfortunately the villa we want can only be booked through Olympic, although it can be booked through owners direct at the same cost as Olympic but without flight and extras and the car hire, as I said I'm a student! The island is Lefkas so flights are limited to that area, fly into Preveza, so even if we booked separately we would probably have to book with Tor Air!
I won't panic yet and hopefully,as its still early days, Olympic may change the airline again, particularly if they read all these bad reviews!
Thanks

Doesn't look good for Tor Air, the staff both in the UK and in Sweden have been laid off a week before Christmas.

Phil Wyatt and co strike yet again. I'm sure they'll be back under another name with another fly-by-night operation next summer. And I'm sure some desperate tour operators will use them.

bagand96

Do you mean permanently laid off?

Thanks

According to http://www.svenskaflygbolag.com the operating license has been withdrawn with the company seeking re-organisation.

Normally doesn't bode well and will probably be the end.

Good Luck to all

However the http://www.flytorair.com is still taking bookings !!!

More here regarding the Tor Air operating licence being revoked:

http://www.travelweekly.co.uk/Articles/2011/12/22/39150/tor+air+licence+revoked.html

David

Have Tor Air been given their license back as they are still selling seats on their website and listed as a carrier for Olympic Holiday!!