Airline passengers are being warned to expect flight cancellations caused by staff shortages to continue. More than 1,000 UK flights have been axed in recent days due to crews being off sick amid a rise in coronavirus cases.
Industry experts also said airlines and airports are struggling because of the number of job cuts made during the pandemic. Aviation data firm Cirium said 1,143 UK flights were cancelled last week, compared with just 197 during the same period in 2019.
The vast majority of last week’s cancellations were by easyJet and British Airways. And the rate of staff absences at easyJet is around double normal levels. Some 60 of its flights scheduled for Tuesday, April 5 were cancelled. A spokeswoman for the airline said: “EasyJet will operate the vast majority of its 1,525 flights today with a small proportion cancelled in advance to give customers the ability to rebook on to alternative flights. We are sorry for any inconvenience for affected customers.”
