People travelling for holidays up and down the country are continuing to face major delays at airports across the country as chaos rumbles on following a busy half-term and four-day Jubilee weekend.
Thousands of Brits trying to fly home after the break are stuck in “crazy” queues for hours on end or have had their flights cancelled altogether, including students due to sit their exams this week.
Over the course of the Platinum Jubilee weekend, hundreds of flights have been axed by various airlines. EasyJet apologised to its customers after cutting 80 flights on Sunday, with Wizz Air, Vueling and British Airways also affected.
As well as cancellations here in the UK, many Brits have been left stranded abroad and are desperately trying to get home.
One frustrated holidaymaker from North Yorkshire says airport staff are not at fault for the huge airport delays, and instead laid the blame at the feet of adults who are “behaving like toddlers”, reports Leeds Live.
Ian Gordon, a businessman from North Yorkshire, was due to travel to Malaga from Leeds Bradford Airport on Sunday morning for a business flight.
When he turned up to the airport, he was greeted with snaking queues and heavy delays, despite it being 5.30am.
Ian told Leeds Live : “At 5.30am today [Sunday] there were crazy queues. Having got through security, first observations are it could be much quicker if passengers prepared before getting to the tray. It’s not hard.
“Take out electrical, put watch in coat pocket, take off boots, coats and belts. Some take forever.
“It’s like people have forgotten how to go to the airport. The thing is that you’ve got thousands of people trying to get through the airport at the same time, especially with those early morning flights.
“People have got toilet roll syndrome like in lockdown. They are all rushing to the airport earlier than they need to, and then they are not getting organised in the queue.
“People hadn’t gotten out their electrical items before they get to security, and then now because everything is on our phones people haven’t got their boarding passes ready, or it is in their photos and they can’t find it. People have forgotten how to fly.”
One passenger flying with easyJet over the weekend tweeted to say her flight out of Barcelona was cancelled and that she had to pay for a flight from Girona from her own pocket, according to Mirror Online.
She tweeted: “@easyJet Can you DM me please. My flight out of Barcelona was cancelled this morning with absolutely no help from staff or any compensation info.
“I have had to get to Girona out of my own pocket to try and get a flight tomorrow AM.”
Another, meanwhile, said that two teachers, a midwife and physio assistant were all stuck in Portugal and were in a race to get home.
She added: “@easyjet literally boarding the plane at Faro Airport to be told flight cancelled. Easyjet you are a disgrace. Noone in airport to help. 8 hours overnight in airport. No flights home to Liverpool until next week. Your app not working since and you do not answer the phone.
“Stranded in Portugal. Got as far as boarding easyjet flight to Liverpool Sun night to be told it was cancelled. The plane flew back empty! No-one to help you, easy jet app not working, Night spent in airport and you can’t contact easyjet by phone.
“Literally boarding the plane at Faro Airport to be told flight cancelled. Easyjet you are a disgrace. Noone in airport to help. 8 hours overnight in airport. No flights home to Liverpool until next week. Your app not working since and you do not answer the phone.”
Some easyJet customers were left “crying” in “complete chaos” as they were left stranded on a Portuguese island.
Families were left “crying” and “arguing with staff” after a lack of communication from the airline company, leaving passengers in “complete chaos”, it was claimed.
Travelers were posed with waiting a further three days until Friday (June 3) for a chance to fly home - but they weren’t even guaranteed a space onboard the flight.
Other travellers have resorted to sleeping at tables while waiting for information about their flights.
Holidaymakers and commuters who were flying from Bristol endured lengthy queues this morning as several more flights were delayed or cancelled.
One frustrated traveller tweeted: “@BristolAirport do you know why it takes an hour to get luggage? We flew on KLM from Amsterdam, arrived on time but had no information from airport on the delay at all, just had to wait.
“Surely it’s not difficult to let travellers know what the delay is and when to expect bags?”
Elsewhere, another said they had to travel some 280 miles with two young children in tow in order to catch an alternative flight as their original trip was cancelled.
They said: “Still awaiting contact from @easyJet from our cancelled flight on Saturday evening. We had to book our own hotel, make alternative transport arrangements and drive over 450km to catch an alternative flight. All of this, along with two very tired young children. #easyJet”
On Sunday, issues at Luton Airport were compounded further when a 20-second power outage plunged travellers into darkness. It’s understood the power cut was caused by a lightning strike, and in a tweet the airport said that “some knock-on” disruption was likely”.
Meanwhile, hundreds of flights were cancelled last week but even after battling the delays and queues, some of those who did end up enjoying their holiday abroad are now struggling to get back.
Some of those are stressed school students who are due to be sitting GCSE and A-Level exams this week.
One affected traveller tweeted on Sunday: “We are in Spain for half term. EasyJet flight home cancelled this morning. Son has GCSE exams Monday onwards. No other flights, no info on whether we should even go to airport etc!”
Ben, 17, was due back home on Saturday, giving him a couple of days to prepare for his maths GCSE exam on Tuesday. However, his mum Emma told the BBC that their easyJet flight home from Paris was cancelled, and the earliest flight the airline could give was Tuesday, which was too late for his exams.
Hundreds of pounds later, they boarded the Eurostar and were due back to Stockport at 11.30pm Monday evening.
EasyJet has since apologised for the disruption caused to its customers across the country, saying it was doing everything it could to support passengers.
And at the weekend, transport secretary Grant Shapps said that those travelling by plane should get automatic refunds for cancelled holidays, much like the delay repay scheme for trains.
He added that it was up to airlines and airports themselves to hire and train more staff, and said it was vital that airlines didn’t oversell flights. Mr Shapps added that more changes were coming to try to avoid a similar situation for the summer holidays when speaking to the BBC’s Sunday Morning programme.
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