Dozens more flights cancelled today – travel chaos continues despite end of Easter holidays
SCHOOLS are back but Easter travel chaos has continued at UK airports today.
Dozens more flights have been cancelled by British Airways and easyJet, as a result of staffing issues.
British Airways has cancelled 27 domestic and European flights to and from Heathrow today and easyJet has cancelled 10 European flights to and from Gatwick.
Destinations affected include Milan, Menorca, Amsterdam, Malaga, Paris and Vienna.
British Airways said that it had given at least a week’s notice to passengers affected by the cancellations.
Today’s cancellations follow hundreds of scrapped flights and long airport queues over the Easter weekend, which were blamed on staff shortages.
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Airports up and down Britain have been experiencing major staffing issues due to a surge in demand from people wanting to travel abroad after the pandemic - as well as Covid-related absences.
But they are having difficulty finding recruits and having their security checks processed.
Manchester Airport, which has been one of the worst hit, saw queues reaching the car park.
Lucie Spencer, 25, said yesterday: "It's definitely due to major staff shortage, TUI had basically no check-in desks open, just self check-in, which seemed to cause the huge queue.
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"Security was then huge queues as there was only three of eight security lanes open.”
Ryanair CEO Eddie Wilson has warned that the trouble could continue well into summer.
He told : "I think some of the airlines are struggling, some of the handling companies, some of the airports are struggling, but again, that's throughout the economy.
"We saw late last year the shortage of HGV drivers, supply chain interruptions, but I think companies could have been better prepared."
He added that it is hard to "stop an airline and start again [...] is a difficult thing to do," but said Ryanair was in a "good position" for the summer.
And Kully Sandhu, the managing director of the Aviation Recruitment Network suggested it could take "at least the next 12 months for the industry, vacancy wise, to settle down".
He said it wasn't just Covid causing problems in hiring new staff, of which he said there were more than 300 vacancies across UK airports, but also Brexit.
He told the BBC: “Brexit has not helped because we had a natural attraction of individuals from the European market who would apply for vacancies in UK airports.
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"We no longer have that talent pool, and we are relying on individuals in the UK.
Lucy Moreton, general secretary for the ISU which represents Border Force, said it was the "first time in living memory" that they couldn't hire enough candidates for the vacancies, adding they were "catastrophically understaffed" for the Easter break.
