Thomson and First Choice are to repatriate thousands of passengers currently stranded in Alicante and Malaga.

The repatriation programme will commence today, Monday 19 April, and will involve some of the companies’ customers in Alicante travelling via coach to Northern France where overnight accommodation will be provided. Customers will then travel via ferry on Tuesday 20 April back to the UK and onto their original UK departure airport.

Customers in Malaga will travel via coach to Costa Brava where overnight accommodation will be provided. The coaches will continue on Tuesday morning to Northern France where customers will then travel via ferry on Wednesday 21 April back to the UK and onto their original UK departure airport.

Thomson and First Choice have around 40,000 passengers stuck abroad and the above measures should see about 5,000 customers brought home.

Thomson also plans to sail its Island Cruises ship, Island Escape, from Fuchal (Madeira) back to the UK to bring home passengers who had previously been scheduled to fly home.

Thomson Cruises  new Thomson Dream ship will also be used to transfer customers from Majorca to Barcelona from where their onward journey will be arranged.

Dermot Blastland, Managing Director for Thomson and First Choice holidays, commented: “Our customers are our number one priority at all times and we felt it was necessary to take action now given the current uncertainty surrounding air travel. Our teams have been working around the clock to put this plan in place so that our customers can return home to their families without any further delay.”