Travellers returning to the UK at the end of half-term holiday – and those trying to leave – faced another day of disruption and long delays on Saturday.
Twenty-five departures and 22 arrivals from Gatwick airport were cancelled, affecting at least 7,000 passengers.
A Gatwick spokesperson said the disruption was in large part because departures did not leave, so could not return.
“Poor weather across Europe does mean air traffic control restrictions have been placed on airspace across the continent,” they said.
“This is causing delays and is the reason for some of the cancellations. Many UK airports will be impacted by this.”
The vast majority of cancellations from Gatwick were on Saturday, including easyJet flights to and from Amsterdam, Milan, Nice and Seville. British Airways and Wizz Air flights are also understood to have been cancelled.
The spokesperson said there were no significant queues at the airport.
At Bristol airport, where passengers were pictured on Friday waiting in queues described as horrific, easyJet cancelled flights to Berlin, Biarritz, Nice and Prague, according to the Independent. The carrier earlier said it had cancelled at least 30 services on Saturday.
A spokesperson said on Saturday: “EasyJet will operate around 1,700 flights carrying around a quarter of a million customers each day over the bank holiday weekend, with a small proportion cancelled in advance either last week or overnight and [customers] informed of their options to rebook or receive a refund.
“Airlines continue to operate in a challenging environment including with air traffic control restrictions operating today at London Gatwick and issues with ground operations at several airports including at Amsterdam, where the airport has requested airlines to cancel some flying today.
“As a result, a small proportion of additional flights could be subject to disruption today.
“We fully understand the inconvenience this will have caused to our customers and we are very sorry for this.”
Pregnant would-be traveller Faye Osmund-Smith said she and her family had booked flights through Tui but were left stranded at Gatwick airport on Saturday “with no updates other than our flight cancelled 14 minutes before check-in”.
@TUIUK you’ve left us stranded at Gatwick airport with no updates other than our flight cancelled 14 minutes before check in! Cannot speak to anyone… not good enough. What are you going to do?
— Floss Smith-Griffiths (@FlossGriffiths) June 4, 2022
She said on Saturday: “I’m travelling with my partner, two 12-year-olds, a 16- and 17-year-old and I’m 21 weeks pregnant.
“We were supposed to be flying from Gatwick to Agadir [in Morocco] at 15.05 this afternoon. Check-in was due to open at 12.
“At 11.50, we received an email telling us the flight was cancelled. EasyJet staff in the airport weren’t interested in helping and just told us to ring Tui. The airport was chaos. There is nowhere to sit and refreshment locations are limited.
“We haven’t been able to speak to anyone at Tui all day. We jumped on a train to Luton, where we are now. We’ve booked a hotel here and will try to fly out to Agadir at 7am tomorrow, but we are not hopeful. So far, we’ve incurred costs of nearly £1,000.”
Airlines are obliged to provide an alternative flight on the same day in the event of a cancellation, including paying for a flight with a different airline if necessary, but availability is extremely limited, leaving many passengers stuck or facing lengthy delays.
Rail passengers have been warned of significant disruption to services over the weekend because of a strike and engineering work.
Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers union have walked out in a long-running dispute with management at the TransPennine Express line over pay.
TPE urged people not to travel on Saturday or Sunday. It said it would be running an amended timetable on both days, with a very limited service available for those making essential journeys.
Travellers returning to the UK from France have been advised of major congestion in and around the French ports of Dunkirk and Calais.
Passengers travelling via Dunkirk have been told to allow at least two hours to complete border control and check-in, although traffic from Dover is flowing as normal.
DFDS Seaways tweeted: “The roads in and around Dunkirk/Calais are extremely busy. Please allow additional time to reach each port.”
