The UK’s airports have been mired in chaos after staff shortages led to hundreds of cancelled flights and hours-long delays over the weekend.
EasyJet axed 222 flights over the weekend due to staff shortages, with around 70 more cancellations expected today.
British Airways has also cancelled some 70 flights to and from Heathrow today, following their cancellations over the weekend. Some 20,000 passengers will be affected by today’s disruption.
An easyJet spokesperson has said: “As a result of the current high rates of Covid infections across Europe, like all businesses easyJet is experiencing higher than usual levels of employee sickness.”
Elsewhere, many passengers at Heathrow, Manchester, Birmingham and Dublin airports have been met with long queues and delays this week as they arrive to jet off for the Easter holidays.
Airport bosses attributed the delays to the sudden growth in passenger volume as they race to hire enough new staff to deal with customer traffic, which is growing as Covid travel restrictions ease in many countries.
Yesterday Manchester mayor Andy Burnham suggested that police and firefighters could be drafted in to help control the chaos at the city’s airport, which has seen fights break out, customers jostling for space and abandoning their luggage.
Follow all the latest updates below.
