EasyJet cancels more than 70 flights on Friday

An estimated 10,000 easyJet passengers have had their flights to, from or within the UK cancelled as the airline battles with staff shortage.

London Gatwick airport is worst affected, with 44 flights so far grounded and others seriously delayed.

The cancellations include a number of longer-distance holiday flights, including to Paphos in Cyprus and the Greek airport of Preveza.

While passengers on these flights were told a day or two in advance, shorter-notice cancellations are continuing. The first flight from Gatwick to Geneva was grounded in the early hours of Friday morning.

To and from Bristol, 14 departures have so far been cancelled, including links to Amsterdam, Berlin and Krakow in Poland.

At Luton airport, where easyJet has its headquarters, links to Jersey and Malaga were grounded – along with the return legs.

Flights from Scotland’s two busiest airports, Edinburgh and Glasgow, were also affected.

From Edinburgh, round trips to two domestic destinations – Birmingham and London Stansted – were cancelled. A Glasgow-Birmingham return flight was also scrapped, along with a round-trip to Paris CDG.

Elsewhere, easyJet made cancellations from Amsterdam to Berlin, Nice and Milan.

In Amsterdam, KLM has grounded at least 50 flights, including links to London City, Bristol and Manchester.

British Airways is cancelling more than 100 European departures each day, but passengers are being wanred weeks in advance.

Wizz Air has also been cancelling flights, some at short notice. From its main UK base at Luton, services to Palanga in Lithuania and the Bulgarian capital, Sofia, were grounded. Gatwick cancellations included Tel Aviv, Milan Malpensa and Malaga. At Doncaster Sheffield, a base that Wizz Air is closing, the afternoon flight to Tenerife has been axed.

All passengers whose flights are cancelled are entitled to new flights on the original day of departure if a seat is available, even if it is on a rival airline.

If the cancellation was announced less than two weeks in advance and the airline is responsible, travellers are also due cash compensation.

In addition there are some long delays to and from Gatwick. The early arrival on easyJet from Malaga is seven hours late at present.

British Airways’ flight to Athens took off almost four hours late. Many flights are more than two hours behind schedule. They include BA to Barcelona, easyJet to Faro and Milan Bergamo and Tui to Antalya.

These delays are likely to impact flights later in the day. The 9.25pm British Airways departure from Gatwick to Alicante is currently delayed by an hour.

An easyJet flight from London Gatwick to Catania in Sicily diverted to Paris Charles de Gaulle after a passenger fell ill shortly after take off.

The Airbus A320, flying as EZY8567, took off from Gatwick at 10.32am and flew normally for half an hour. But just south of the French capital, while flying at 37,000 feet, the crew “squawked” an emergency on board. The plane turned around and landed at 12.35pm local time.

The aircraft took off again after about 80 minutes on the ground.