Hi all

I have just found out im going to be flying with tor air and as i have never heard of them i was wondering if anyone has, if so what are they like?

skootsmon,

Tor Air operate Boeing 737-300. they are quite basic, no frills. seat pitch is 29-30" with no IFE. They're decent enough.

Darren

Tor Air are run by the same people who ran Viking and XL Airways. They went bust.
One of their planes has had 6 previous owners.
If you google Torair you will find some very interesting facts about this outfit.
The word cowboy comes to mind.

Some of Olympic's flights out of Birmingham are with an airline called Skywings. They have one 18 year old A320 and three MD80s, which are over 21 years old. Some of them used to belong to Viking, many people will remember waiting in airports for them last year.
Several Skywing flights were over one day late last week, the Heraklion flight in particular. I would recommend taking plenty of books to read and perhaps a sleeping bag.
It is a pitty that Olympic fell out with Monarch, a good airline. Some of the replacements are not fit for purpose. Have a look on the professional pilot's website, pprune.org

Flew to Chania from Gatwick 24/5.

Check-in pretty slick (I appreciate that this was ground agents rather than Tor Air), took off a few minutes late.

Torair 737, leather seats, reasonable amount of leg room (but my OH is 5'8" and I'm 5' so that's never usually an issue anyway) seemed clean inside, cabin crew pleasant, no IFE but that never bothers me as I either read, do Sudoku or listen to music.

Didn't order food on board so can't comment on that.
They managed to get 2 drinks runs in though.

Flight back took off from LGW almost 30 mins late to pick us up.
That delay turned into a 1 hour 20 minute delay taking off from Chania.
Reason given was a delay in re-fuelling.
There was also quite a lot of Air Force activity with jets taking off regularly, we were held on the buses for about 10 mins while the jets took off and landed so that may also have contributed to the delay.
Probably both things outside of TorAir's control.

Proper TorAir 737, cabin crew very pleasant.
Actually landed back just 30 minutes later than the stated arrival time.

Used TOR Air on 21st June Manchester to Chania. AVOID THIS AIRLINE AT ALL COSTS. They are terrible. 15 hour delay, no food or drink for 12 hours, ambulance had to treat ill people when plane arrived as dehydrated. None existant service, old planes that falling apart. Also delayed on return journey. Will never use again even if it was a free flight.

I have to agree with the last post I'm afraid. Having booked with Olympic I turned up at Gatwick for the TOR AIR 05.45 Kalamata flight only to be told that the plane won't be turning up at all and there is a 16 hour (yes 16 hour delay) until 21.50 when a replacement sub-charter flight from "Fly Hellas Airlines" arrives. Reason given for the delay was a "bird strike" (must have been a hell of a big bird!). Despite the delay, TOR AIR checked in our luggage as normal and so no luggage for the rest of the day plus a 5 hour wait to get into the hotel room provided...

snakeoil wrote:

must have been a hell of a big bird!).

Not necassarily. Even a small bird ingested in to an engine can cause lots of damage or dents in the fuselage or leading edges. Aircraft fly upwards of 450mph so even a small object can do a lot of damage. Look at what happened in New York with the Hudson ditching. An extreme example, but bird strikes are serious issues.

Darren

There was an element of sarcasm in my "big bird" comment. I'm aware that bird strikes can cause alot of damage - I'm just a little dubious that this was the real reason for the delay. There have been two 15 hour+ delays in a relatively short space of time from the same airline. Unfortunate coincidence or a trend ? Only time will tell..

As I said already - avoid this airline at all cost. We were misinformed about our delay and they treated their customers terribly. They broke the law by refusing us refreshments for 12 hours and also refused us phone calls - I am reporting them to the airline authority about this. (EU regulation 2006 / 04). I have also gone to watchdog. They told us the problem had been fixed but the engineers were still working on it for ages while we sat on the plane - so long in fact that the staff were out of hours and the plane had to stop off in Gatwick. We were also over an hour in Gatwick just sitting on the runway. I think time has already shown there to be a problem with this airline as there have been many delays in the last few months according to the airport staff.

I have to say I work at Gatwick airport and I can't believe what I'm seeing on this forum!

Compared to the likes of Thomas cook, Thomson, monarch etc Tor Air have been amazing!
They have had approximately 2 delays the whole summer season so far. 2 days ago monarch had 5 delays, 2 of which were 12 hours +.

Don't believe everything you read. Some people are set out to bad mouth certain airlines. If it wasn't for small airlines like Tor Air, Strategic etc, so many small tour operators would not be able to operate . The likes of sunvil, mark warner, cv travel, AIG. even Olympic Holidays have been saved by these airlines due to monarch not wanting to operate on their behalf this year.

It's inevitable that all airlines do have delays, even British Airways!!

I am insulted by your implication about trying to bad mouth an airline. I am genuinly trying to warn people about using them. It was serious not giving us food and drink for 12 hours and people on the plane were very ill. I lost 1 day of my holiday because of them and the way they treated their customers was a disgrace. The staff at Manchester airport did not feel the same as you. I have first hand experience of using this airline and I could say.. don't believe everything that you read...it may be staff from TOR air who are posting on this website! I know that other airlines have problems but this was by far the worst airline that I have ever used.

I am in no way directy connected to any airline! I work in operations for one of the handling agents, I can say Tor air is the least of your worries!

I don't know, "avoid this airline at all cost" sounds like a bit of bad mouthing to me !!!

I can only speak from personal experience and we flew Torair from Gatwick to Kalamata on 12th June (and returned on 26th) with no problems. OK so the plane came from Lithuania, wasn't exactly new and the cabin crew consisted of a Scot, English, Spanish and Portuguese. God knows where the pilots came from !!
Anyway, we had no delays and the crew were very pleasant indeed. I have to say that it was 100% better than the Thomas Cook flights we have had there.

As someone else said, if it wasn't for these small airlines who provide low cost seats then our travel companies wouldn't be able to sell holidays at prices that we can afford. As long as they are safe then I don't mind, it gets me where I want to go.

I know that other travel companies are trying to force companies like Olympic out of business by charging exorbitant prices on their own planes so these smaller companies have to get transportation where they can and we just have to hope they are safe and also don't go bust.

Having spoken today to friends near Kalamata the delay on Sunday was indeed caused by a bird strike putting the plane out of action and another had to be found. I agree that the delay was long and maybe more could and should have been done in the way of drinks, food etc.

I can confirm the bird strike occurred at Kos airport as our plane to gatwick landed at 11pm 16/7/11 we were delayed 30 hrs our flight out with tor was excellent comfortable seats onboard meal was good and aircrew excellent,unfortunately these things do happen.You get what you pay for.We were looked after in four star hotel by Olympic holidays our operator they eventually flew us back on Small planetaero (lithuanian) not quite as good but couple of tor staff serving and apologising,they had been on our outbound flight.

Compared to the likes of Thomas cook, Thomson, monarch etc Tor Air have been amazing!
They have had approximately 2 delays the whole summer season so far. 2 days ago monarch had 5 delays, 2 of which were 12 hours +.

I don't think this is a fair comparison.

You have to look at percentages.
E.G.
If Tor Air have 10 flights per week and over a, say, 10 week period have 2 delays and Monarch have 200 flights per week and over the same 10 week period have 5 delays, Monarch have a better record for timeliness.

I understand there has been some long delays from Manchester with Tor Air.

I always think that it's not so much the length of delay that matters, it's how the airline looks after you during that delay - and I can see why CheltenhamFran had an issue.

Before anybody accuses me of 'putting the boot in' with Tor Air, please read my personal experience of flying with this airline (dated June 8th).

Re the 'avoid at all costs' advice - I prefer to make my own mind up.

The delay on the Manchester flight that I was on was caused by a problem with the breaks. We were told that it was cheaper for them to ship the part in from abroad than buy it in the UK.
I was not on the delayed TOR air flight that involved the bird strike.
You save all year to go on holiday and when you are only going for 1 week, to loose a day that you have paid for including meals in the hotel that you have paid for (not cheap as mine was a 5* hotel) and to arrive ill and tired is very annoying.

That's the risk you take when you fly. All airlines have delays, it's a fact of airline travel.

Well they ain't that good this weekend!!!!!!!!

LGW - 36hr delayed Rhodes boarding at present
12 hr late Kalamata yesterday, 16 hr late Kos, 24 hr late inbound Kos.

Shocking, no short haul airline should have a delay of 36hrs, it shows a lack of operational skills, lack of equipment

Fly with a big carrier, you have more planes to pool from and you would never get a 36hr delay to somewhere like Rhodes! You simply use the next plane that is available and knock on. Tor air only have 4, I think 2 are wet leases. they cannot seem to do this.