By More Easter flights cancelled as airport madness ensues
Airlines are expected to cancel more flights in the coming days as travel disruption continues across the country.
Roughly 60 flights to and from the UK are likely to be grounded today after 62 flights were cancelled by British Airways on Monday.
EasyJet said staff absences were double their normal levels due to Covid, stating it had decided to cancel more flights in advance “in order to give customers notice”.
“We are contacting customers directly and providing them with their options,” it said.
“We expect to make similar levels of pre-emptive cancellations over the coming days, due to the ongoing high level of sickness.”
Covid-related absences have led to staff shortages at airports and airlines as the industry struggles to recruit staff quickly enough after thousands of jobs were lost and many workers left the industry during the pandemic.
Long delays at security and check-ins have led to travellers at Manchester Airport complaining of “chaos”.
Videos have been circulating online of excruciatingly long queues and check-ins at multiple airports, with footage going viral of passengers attempting to go through security checks at Manchester airport.
Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham said police and fire and rescue service staff could be drafted in to help tackle the chaos at the airport.
National secretary for the GMB union, Andy Prendergast, told BBC Radio 5 Live the aviation industry has “had a torrid couple of years”.
“Over that period they’ve lost huge numbers of staff via redundancy and people getting other jobs,” he said.
“Quite simply there isn’t the capacity to look after all the travellers.”
Manchester Airport admitted passengers’ experiences have fallen “below the standard, we aim to provide”.
A spokesperson said: “We are doing all we can to recruit the staff we need to meet this demand, but this is taking time due to the lengthy vetting and training processes involved.
“Our whole industry is facing staff shortages and recruitment challenges at present, after the most damaging two years in its history.”
Have you been affected by cancelled flights? Let us know in the comments!
