Maleth confirms end of P&O partnership

[Interestedcruisefan]

We fly with Maleth to barbados this morning from Manchester at 9.30am

 

So for so good. Flight is boarding on time.

 

And here is a real bonus of flying with maleth:

 

They only have 1 flight out today

 

7 staff checking cases in. When we arrived only 2 were being used.

 

So ZEROS queues at all to check cases in

 

Compared to 30 mins last year checking in for same cruise with tui from Birmingham

 

So good start so far Maleth!!

[Megabear2]

36 minutes ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

We fly with Maleth to barbados this morning from Manchester at 9.30am

 

So for so good. Flight is boarding on time.

 

And here is a real bonus of flying with maleth:

 

They only have 1 flight out today

 

7 staff checking cases in. When we arrived only 2 were being used.

 

So ZEROS queues at all to check cases in

 

Compared to 30 mins last year checking in for same cruise with tui from Birmingham

 

So good start so far Maleth!!

Great news.  Gatwick Maleth flight also appears to be on time.  Not such good news from TUI Gatwick second flight as it's currently showing delayed from 11.20 to 13.10.

[Mrs applehead]

22 hours ago, CCFC said:

We appear to be on  British Airways flight out of Gatwick January next year, cant be any worse from what I have read here!

Can I ask how you found out please, we are going in december and don't know the airport or airline yet.

[Presto2]

2 hours ago, Mrs applehead said:

Can I ask how you found out please, we are going in december and don't know the airport or airline yet.

If it helps - we rebooked for Britannia next January when we were on board and I asked specifically about the flights and shared my concerns. She was able to look up the flight and told me there and then who the flight was with. OK no guarantee, but there must be documentation somewhere ...

[Mrs applehead]

13 minutes ago, Presto2 said:

If it helps - we rebooked for Britannia next January when we were on board and I asked specifically about the flights and shared my concerns. She was able to look up the flight and told me there and then who the flight was with. OK no guarantee, but there must be documentation somewhere ...

Thank you, I will check again to see if its been  added anywhere 

[Presto2]

Just now, Mrs applehead said:

Thank you, I will check again to see if its been  added anywhere 

Perhaps you could ask directly to see what they say. We only found out when booking and can't see any info yet ..... will have a look.

[Mrs applehead]

1 minute ago, Presto2 said:

Perhaps you could ask directly to see what they say. We only found out when booking and can't see any info yet ..... will have a look.

I've just looked on myp&o.com and clicked on flights and the info is now there. Gatwick with TUI.

[cheshire]

Maleth on time this weekend but Tui out of Gatwick and returning to Manchester over three hour delays.   Crazy scheduling yesterday.  

[Interestedcruisefan]

Just to say we flew out with Maleth last Friday to Barbados

 

We took off about 30 mins late and landed 20 mins late

 

The staff were great. The atmosphere on the plane was great. And the legroom was WAY more than on our recent Virgin and Tui dreamliner flights

 

Wouldn't want to fly with Tui again given the chance

 

And people upto about 6ft2 wouldn't need extra legroom seats on the Airbus planes maleth use. It's like Tui and Virgin must have made legroom bad on dreamliners to force people to pay for expensive upgrades?

 

Could not believe the legroom. In standards seats. I actually had a comfortable long haul flight for once!

 

Will send some photos

 

Way more comfortable than Tui and Virgin dreamliner

 

Honestly

Edited February 22 by Interestedcruisefan

[Megabear2]

Interesting article from the trade press yesterday.

 

https://travelweekly.co.uk/news/air/po-cruises-president-says-talks-ongoing-over-caribbean-airline-partner

[Presto2]

18 hours ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

Just to say we flew out with Maleth last Friday to Barbados

 

We took off about 30 mins late and landed 20 mins late

 

The staff were great. The atmosphere on the plane was great. And the legroom was WAY more than on our recent Virgin and Tui dreamliner flights

 

Wouldn't want to fly with Tui again given the chance

 

And people upto about 6ft2 wouldn't need extra legroom seats on the Airbus planes maleth use. It's like Tui and Virgin must have made legroom bad on dreamliners to force people to pay for expensive upgrades?

 

Could not believe the legroom. In standards seats. I actually had a comfortable long haul flight for once!

 

Will send some photos

 

Way more comfortable than Tui and Virgin dreamliner

 

Honestly

That's encouraging to read and good for someone to come on here to post some positives. Thanks

[molecrochip]

Can now confirm as it’s in public domain:

 

A Maleth spokesperson told Travel Gossip today: “Our partnership with P&O will end at the end of March due to new operations that we will be running in the coming months. We are open to work with any operator that could request our services in the future.”

[Cruise_Rookie_2010]

Looks like Maleth have reached the end of their line with P&O.

 

https://www.travelgossip.co.uk/latestnews/maleth-confirms-it-will-not-operate-flights-for-po-cruises-beyond-march/

 

I suspect P&O had very little choice at the time of who they would partner with, and Ford Aviation/Maleth took a gamble on being able to serve the demand. It's a tough gig transporting any passengers by air particularly at the moment when travel is booming after the lockdowns, not enough planes, not enough staff to crew them, costs increasing, chaos in the airport terminals (I'm looking at you Manchester) leading to all sorts of delays, etc. They've had less than 6 months, which from a standing start isn't a great deal of time, to iron out the kinks & it sounds like they were starting to get their act together but too late to save the situation.

[so,ton saint]

Reading a article from cruise hive, P&O have partnered TUI for 24/25 winter season for the Caribbean.

[so,ton saint]

Looks like P&O  have Partnered TUI once again for the winter 24/25 for its Caribbean cruises.

[Megabear2]

Just now, so,ton saint said:

Looks like P&O  have Partnered TUI once again for the winter 24/25 for its Caribbean cruises.

Yes, that was confirmed some time ago.  Paul Ludlow announced to the trade in the week that P&O will be announcing their additional partner shortly so clearly there will be another airline announcement shortly.

 

I booked a Britannia fly cruise this week and my flight is already confirmed as TUI - I took the last two premium seats and availability in cabins was also quite restricted.

[cheshire]

Maleth flight this morning from Manchester to Antigua.  Cancelled.  Rescheduled for 8pm tonight. 

[Skiptonguy]

3 hours ago, Cruise_Rookie_2010 said:

Looks like Maleth have reached the end of their line with P&O.

 

https://www.travelgossip.co.uk/latestnews/maleth-confirms-it-will-not-operate-flights-for-po-cruises-beyond-march/

 

I suspect P&O had very little choice at the time of who they would partner with, and Ford Aviation/Maleth took a gamble on being able to serve the demand. It's a tough gig transporting any passengers by air particularly at the moment when travel is booming after the lockdowns, not enough planes, not enough staff to crew them, costs increasing, chaos in the airport terminals (I'm looking at you Manchester) leading to all sorts of delays, etc. They've had less than 6 months, which from a standing start isn't a great deal of time, to iron out the kinks & it sounds like they were starting to get their act together but too late to save the situation.

 

I feel sorry for Maleth to be honest.  Maleth have had to deal with decisions that P&O made (for example which aircraft from the Maleth fleet were used and the decision not to have premium cabins and go for maximum passenger density.  I just hope they made some decent money out of it!

[Megabear2]

2 minutes ago, Skiptonguy said:

 

I feel sorry for Maleth to be honest.  Maleth have had to deal with decisions that P&O made (for example which aircraft from the Maleth fleet were used and the decision not to have premium cabins and go for maximum passenger density.  I just hope they made some decent money out of it!

The amount of compensation owing will be very high.  So far none has been paid from what we can see.  Unless P&O paid them an absolute fortune Maleth will probably rue the day they ever took the contract.  From being an unknown airline they have unfortunately become the devil incarnate on some websites (not here thankfully) with any slight normal problem being highlighted and magnified as a "disaster".  I too feel a little sorry for them, it isn't their fault they were the only available airline and unfortunately they have just been out of their depth particularly after the CAT incident which made the lack of aircraft even more acute.

[sweep2907]

50 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

Yes, that was confirmed some time ago.  Paul Ludlow announced to the trade in the week that P&O will be announcing their additional partner shortly so clearly there will be another airline announcement shortly.

 

I booked a Britannia fly cruise this week and my flight is already confirmed as TUI - I took the last two premium seats and availability in cabins was also quite restricted.

Is that for later 2024 or 2025?

[terrierjohn]

39 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

The amount of compensation owing will be very high.  So far none has been paid from what we can see.  Unless P&O paid them an absolute fortune Maleth will probably rue the day they ever took the contract.  From being an unknown airline they have unfortunately become the devil incarnate on some websites (not here thankfully) with any slight normal problem being highlighted and magnified as a "disaster".  I too feel a little sorry for them, it isn't their fault they were the only available airline and unfortunately they have just been out of their depth particularly after the CAT incident which made the lack of aircraft even more acute.

If that is true then I imagine that Maleth will now go bust, and leave all their debts behind, and possibly Maleth 2 will rise from the ashes.

Edited February 24 by terrierjohn

[Skiptonguy]

15 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

If that is true then I imagine that Maleth will now go bust, and leave all their debts behind, and possibly Maleth 2 will rise from the ashes.

 

I suspect this is highly unlikely - Maleth have 7 aircraft, two of which are used for P&O for a couple of flights a week.

[seahorse001]

15 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

If that is true then I imagine that Maleth will now go bust, and leave all their debts behind, and possibly Maleth 2 will rise from the ashes.

yes teriierjohn I suspect you are correct. TBH I'm not holding my breath for the compensation form I submitted for my delayed flight. Megabear- I don't feel sorry for them at all. the bottom line is it was a business contract that they accepted & couldn't fulfill....end of. Personally I had a horrendous delay &  flight with them and I actually felt unsafe. I wouldn't travel with them again even if the fare was free ! in all my many flights it was by far the worse experience and not a good start to what was a super cruise.

[Megabear2]

1 hour ago, sweep2907 said:

Is that for later 2024 or 2025?

Late 24.

[Megabear2]

2 hours ago, seahorse001 said:

yes teriierjohn I suspect you are correct. TBH I'm not holding my breath for the compensation form I submitted for my delayed flight. Megabear- I don't feel sorry for them at all. the bottom line is it was a business contract that they accepted & couldn't fulfill....end of. Personally I had a horrendous delay &  flight with them and I actually felt unsafe. I wouldn't travel with them again even if the fare was free ! in all my many flights it was by far the worse experience and not a good start to what was a super cruise.

I'm sorry you had such a bad experience. Whilst having a lot of sympathy with all those affected by the dreadful delays they can and do happen regularly on far more well known airlines, unfortunately it is in particular a post pandemic problem with lack of aircraft.  I assume if you felt unsafe you had the misfortune to be on the flight which encountered severe turbulence which must have been extremely frightening.

 

As to the business contract who is to say how many aircraft P&O's flight agent asked to be available. If it was the bare minimum to move everyone on a set schedule then that is not Maleth's error as the agent must be aware aircraft go out of service and should have ensured that the necessary spare planes were available.  The knock on from the damaged aircraft being stranded was clearly huge and affected a very large number of flights.  If on the other hand the three aircraft were all that were available due to Maleth's other commitments then P&O's aircraft procurement team should have pointed out to their client P&O the risk involved and P&O consider whether it was wise to attempt the full programme for the season whilst literally flying by the seat of their pants.  They could perhaps have allowed those who wanted to cancel after the announcement of no premium economy to do so without loss of deposit or even halted sales, particularly of the 7 day Arvia cruises.  

 

Hindsight is a wonderful thing but truthfully the whole thing has been a dog's dinner in how it has been handled and the very least P&O can do is assist those claiming their legal entitlement from Maleth by applying commercial pressure.  At the end of the day the only ones losing here are their customers and this is not just of Maleth's making.