EasyJet pilots warn flight cancellations will get WORSE this summer with ‘frightening’ disruptions

EASYJET pilots have warned Brits to expect "frightening" disruption levels this summer, with more flight cancellations.

Thousands of flights have been cancelled in recent months, mainly due to staff shortages, which has resulted in widespread travel chaos across the UK.

This is due to many airlines cutting jobs during the pandemic - only for a slow recruitment process slowing down new staff applications, while travel demand soars.

EasyJet pilots have since warned, in a letter seen by, that disruption is yet to reach its peak after top executives failed to avoid the "unprecedented chaos" in recent weeks.

The letter, written by the easyJet branch of the French SNPL pilot's union, said: "Literally hundreds of employees in distress have fed back how chaotic our operations have become recently, to unprecedented levels.

"We are actually convinced that our disruption hasn’t even peaked yet and frankly this is a frightening prospect."

They added that the airline was wrong to believe that they could deliver a normal summer schedule with “less flight crew, cabin crew, or flight planning officers," but that some cancellations were "avoidable" if they had more staff.

However, an easyJet spokesperson told Sun Online Travel that they were still operating around 1,700 flights a day, which worked out to nearly a quarter of a million passengers.

They said: "EasyJet has a continuous and open dialogue with our unions and is aware of the letter issued by SNPL and will be responding directly to them. 

“Delivering a safe and reliable operation for our customers and crew is the airline’s highest priority and the evidence from our safety reporting system shows no deterioration in flight safety as a result of the current operating environment. 

“However the ongoing challenging operating environment continues to have an impact which is resulting in a small proportion of flight cancellations.

“We are absolutely focused on our daily operation and continue to monitor this very closely and will not hesitate to take action as needed."

EasyJet has been forced to reduce its schedule to handle flight cancellations, with around 30 cancelled a day.

But they aren't the only airline - TUI is cancelling around six flights a day for the rest of June, while British Airways scrapped 16,000 flights between March and October.

And Lufthansa has cancelled 900 short-haul flights this summer due to staff shortages.

It isn't just flight cancellations either - strikes could also cause even more problems for holidaymakers this summer.

British Airways workers are threatening to strike next month, along with a number of Ryanair staff across Europe.

Airport union Prospect's general secretary Mike Clancy said the current chaos had a "really damaging impact" on holidaymakers and was unlikely to be solved by next month.

He told : "It would be difficult to give anybody the confidence at the present minute, that we are going to be okay by the school holidays in July."

And travel editor Rory Boland said: "We're already seeing very long queues, widespread chaos at airports, huge stress for people planning to get away, and we haven't hit the peak yet."