Flights from many of the major airlines are likely to be grounded this summer due to a significant cutting back of Gatwick Airport 's schedule.
The travel hub is set to reduce the number of daily flights to help tackle issues over staffing after a number of last-minute cancellations caused havoc for holidaymakers.
The airport, the UK's second busiest, will limit daily take-offs and landings to 825 in July and 850 in August after the decision was taken following a review of its operations.
On the busiest days, airlines will be told to cancel up to 50 flights – requiring thousands of passengers already booked on them to find alternative departures.
Sign up to the Mirror's travel newsletter for more news and updates.
Airport Coordination Ltd, the body that assigns take-off and landing “slots” at Gatwick and other hubs, will stipulate the number of cancellations that each airline must make.
While the exact numbers remain unclear, The Mirror has contacted the major airlines which use Gatwick to ask how badly they expect to be impacted.
Ryanair
The Irish budget airline has been very punchy when it comes to the Gatwick situation, calling on the airport's bosses to look elsewhere when deciding which company's schedule to cut.
“We do not have any plans to cancel flights from Gatwick," they said.
"Ryanair operated a full schedule of flights with zero cancellations (due to staffing shortages) to/from the UK in May and expects to operate all scheduled flights to/from UK airports in June subject only to the risk of ATC or airport handling delays.
"Gatwick should be looking to the airlines who are already making mass cancellations across the UK for these cuts.”
TUI
The German travel company is very optimistic when it comes to how impacted it might be by the Gatwick cancellations.
A spokesperson for TUI said it expects to operate all planned flights from Gatwick over the next three months.
"Our TUI Airways flights have been operating well from Gatwick and therefore plan on operating all flights as planned this summer," they said.
"We will continue to work closely with all elements of the aviation ecosystem to make sure our customers can get away on the holidays they’ve been looking forward to."
EasyJet
easyJet is expected to bear the brunt of the cancellations from Gatwick, having already grounded hundreds of its flights so far this year.
At least 50 easyJet departures and arrivals didn't leave the tarmac of the west London airport on Thursday, meaning an estimated 10,000 passengers did not travel as booked.
The budget airline would not give a figure when it came to predicted number of cancelled flights when asked.
An easyJet spokesperson said: “We are aware of the capacity cap announced by Gatwick and are now reviewing the details to assess what this means for easyJet’s Gatwick operation.
“We recognise the need for Gatwick to do this, as airports across Europe have visibility across all airlines and are well placed to decide what capacity is realistic in the current challenging operating environment, so all airlines can provide reliable services for their customers.
“Given the high frequencies of our services to and from Gatwick, we expect to be able to re-accommodate the majority of customers whose flights are affected by the cap.”
British Airways
BA has already reduced its schedule by 10% until October and has endured plenty of cancellations and delays.
As of 9.30am this morning, it had cancelled four flights from Gatwick alone, to countries including Portugal and France.
Today a BA spokesperson told the Mirror: "Like other airlines we are working closely with Gatwick Airport to ensure our customers can continue to travel with certainty."
The company is working through its flight schedules to amend them in line with the airport's required reduction and will offer any affected customers the option to either rebook with BA or another airline.
If they don't rebook, they can get a full refund.
Wizz Air
The Hungarian airline did not respond to the Mirror's queries about cancellations from Gatwick.
Wizz Air does fly a lot of routes out from the travel hub however, and will likely suffer substantially from the groundings.
According to The Independent ’s travel correspondent, Simon Calder, Portuguese and Spanish flight routes are likely to be the worst affected by the cuts.
He says: “For easyJet, Wizz Air and British Airways’ EuroFlyer, the most obvious flights will be high-frequency links such as London to the key Costa Blanca, Costa del Sol and Algarve airports: Alicante, Malaga and Faro respectively.
“At weekends easyJet has six or seven flights a day, and removing one or two from the schedules is probably feasible.”
