The ongoing issues with airport travel don't seem to be going away any time soon.
Popular West Yorkshire airport Leeds Bradford has had another day of long queues, delays, and frustrated passengers. Staff shortages have left the airport with ongoing issues since April, and now as summer holidays have kicked off, the "mayhem" is continuing to prevail.
Passengers travelling from the Yeadon airport on Wednesday morning said they waited in long queues, and others said they had to be pulled out out of the queues as their flight was boarding - despite arriving hours ahead of take-off. While another added waiting in line for hours on end is "as horrendous as they say".
As temperatures rake up to 23C this week in Leeds, people were seen waiting outside in the heat - with some taking to Twitter to report the difficulty of waiting hours in the warmth. A sea of people, luggage, trollies, and prams was seen trailing from the outside of the airport, and through to security, during the early hours of the morning.
Last week passengers compared the airport to a "theme park" and airport taxi drivers reported passengers arriving at the airport appeared "unhappy" when they saw the queues. Demand for flying has bounced back rapidly after the pandemic but businesses have been unable to quickly rehire staff, after thousands were laid off.
For months passengers who have got on flights between 5am and 8am have conclusively seen the biggest set backs. The airport are looking for more staff to try and resolve the issue, but one holiday goer travelling this Wednesday pointed out that there "are more staff members working in Duty Free than there are on the check-in desks".
It comes after a regular passenger said the "chaos" is now breaking out past security and through to the terminal itself. Simon Greenwood, who travels weekly for work from LBA, was travelling on Monday of this week.
He said there was only one lane open for the car drop-off before he was waiting in queues trailing out of the airport through to check-in and security. "I fly most weeks around 4.25am. There was the usual queues into Jet2.com and the queue into security was all the way back", he said. He travels to Amsterdam and onto Saudi Arabia weekly.
The passenger said he had fast track so he was able to get through security in 30 minutes, and thought the sea of people would soon end when he got to the terminal. However, Simon added that he found passengers sat on the floor.
And it seems that the issues trailing through to the terminal wasn't a one-off. Earlier today, customer Jordan said: "While travelling from @LBIAirport and returned after holiday. It is one of the most run-down airports I've flown from.
"The amount of litter in the baggage reclaim was shocking. The front of airport also looks a complete mess. It's not a great look for Yorkshire."
Mark who was travelling from the airport this morning said: "For anyone who's thinking it's just the media scaremongering. Queue's for security @LBIAirport is as horrendous as they say. (This is us queueing for a 7am flight). We arrived 2.5 hours before as advised.
"We queued for two hours and eventually got pulled out of the queue and put to the front as our flight was boarding."
And, Brendan Dyson said: "Good morning from Leeds Bradford airport. These fools couldn’t run a bath let alone an airport."
Leeds Bradford Airport have warned customers to arrive no earlier than three hours ahead of their flights. Now, anyone flying with Ryanair this June to July could face further interruption due to a staff strike. Airline staff have plans for industrial action over working conditions and pay from June 24 to July 2.
Despite the queues this morning, no further delays or cancellations were reported throughout the early afternoon.
Leeds Live have gone to Leeds Bradford Airport for comments regarding the ongoing issues.
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