British Airways and easyJet canceled more than 150 flights to and from the UK on Wednesday as holidaymakers faced additional delays in departure lounges during Queen’s extended platinum anniversary celebration.
BA has canceled at least 124 short-haul flights at Heathrow Airport, although the airline said passengers had been notified in advance.
The low-cost carrier easyJet has canceled at least 31 flights at Gatwick Airport, including those scheduled to depart for Bologna, Barcelona, Prague, Krakow and Edinburgh.
Tour operator Tui has canceled six flights a day from Manchester Airport for the whole of June. Manchester Airport blamed the move for a shortage of staff at Tui and its terrestrial operator, Swissport, which manages baggage check-in and handling.
On the last day of canceled flights and airport disruptions, an easyJet passenger tweeted a photo taken shortly after 4am at Manchester Airport showing a long line of people in the terminal car park.
Describing the situation as a “flap”, the passenger wrote: “It took two hours and 45 minutes to cross – most of it was dropping bags. Now on the plane, but due to a lack of ground crew, there will be another delay of approximately 50 minutes.
Manchester Airport expects more than 330,000 passengers to pass through the airport between Thursday, June 2 and Sunday, June 5. The airport apologized for the interruption and said it was in contact with senior airline officials and ground officials. It is recommended that passengers arrive three hours before the flight.
Another easyJet passenger complained that he had to wait more than two and a half hours to pick up his luggage after landing in Gatwick shortly before 3 am. He called it “just not good enough.”
Travelers are facing several weeks of delays and disruptions at UK airports, with demand for foreign travel resuming after all restrictions on travel in the UK Covid have been eased.
Many workers in the aviation industry were laid off or left the sector during the pandemic, when international travel was banned for months during the blockade, and when business resumed, airlines and airports struggled to hire staff and obtain security clearances. finalized.
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Transport Secretary Grant Shaps criticized the travel companies, saying they had “seriously resold flights and holidays in relation to their capacity to deliver”.
In a statement issued late Tuesday, Schaps said he had called for meetings with airports, airlines and ground officials to “find out what went wrong and how they plan to end the current series of cancellations and delays”.
Shaps added: “This should not happen again and every effort should be made not to do this again in the summer.”
Airlines and airports said they had repeatedly asked for specific financial support for the sector during the pandemic, as government restrictions on Covid’s travel made international travel difficult and expensive.
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