British Airways has reportedly cancelled hundreds of flights to destinations in the US and Middle East.
The airline is said to have cancelled half of its flights to Miami from London Heathrow. Routes from London to Berlin, Dublin and Paris were also affected.
On Wednesday and Thursday, BA cut 200 flights as the staff shortage crisis affecting the flight industry continues to bite. And it's bad news for anyone travelling soon, as industry experts said the issues could take months to sort out.
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In response to a huge number of complaints, British Airways' CEO Sean Doyle has emailed customers to apologise for the cancellations and long delays, reports the Mirror.
The Mail reported the email read: “We’ll do everything we can to get you where you need to be.” Other affected BA routes include to Hong Kong and Tokyo, with no flights to the popular destinations until September and October respectively.
Staff absences caused by Covid have helped drive serious issues at air travel hubs for the whole of the month. Around 300 flights were cancelled over the Easter weekend by British Airways alone, causing serious logistical issues and ruined holidays for many.
Paul Charles, CEO of travel consultancy The PC Agency, previously said of the issues affecting the flight industry: "This is a staggering level of flight cancellations caused by a cocktail of not having enough staff in place and Covid-induced staff shortages.
“Airlines are certainly seeing a high level of demand to fly, but are simply unable to cope with that demand due to a lack of resources. It’s a nightmare situation for airlines and airports at the moment."
Passengers travelling through major UK airports have been urged to arrive as long as four hours before their flight is due to take off because of the crisis. Eddie Wilson, CEO of Ryanair, told Wales online he believes the chaos at airports will continue.
He said: “We've seen it in lots of parts of the economy where people struggled with getting people back from furlough and sometimes people didn't prepare for when the pandemic was over.
"We've been planning for that all along and it's difficult to restart airlines but we were planning for that right from March 2020 when airlines stopped flying. We kept our aircraft flying, we kept our aircraft current and maintained, and our people current as well.
"I think a lot of people were working from home and detached from reality, and maybe thought we were never coming back, so I think they're being caught out.
"But in fairness, Brexit hasn't helped either, because a lot of people from central and eastern Europe who used to work in the UK went home and didn't come back and there's going to be a period of adjustment in the labour force in the UK.”
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