Leading travel experts have warned that it could be up to a year before staffing at some of the UK's main airports is back to pre-pandemic levels. British Airways and EasyJet have already cancelled hundreds of flights to some of Britain’s most popular foreign holiday destinations over the Easter break and there have been reports of long queues at a number of airports.
British Airways has cancelled flights to Miami, Hong Kong, and Tokyo over the next four months and hundreds of flights to Europe and the US were also cancelled by BA and easyJet over Easter. The pandemic has been blamed for the majority of the issues because large numbers of staff were made redundant and haven't come back.
The summer period is expected to be a busy one for airports and airlines, which could continue to cause issues if the staffing crisis gripping the industry does not get under control. Andy Prendergast, national secretary of the GMB, has said before: "The wages aren't competitive any more. The security checks take an awful lot of time and people are simply found other careers. There's a huge number of vacancies and we've been speaking to some of the airports and some of the baggage-handling companies who are saying quite simply they can't currently get a crew for the amount of flights that they're getting."
