Queues at Gatwick North Terminal
(Picture: Elliot Wagland)Monday is set to be the busiest day for British airports in three years, a travel expert has claimed, as Britons were warned to brace for further delays and cancellations.
Paul Charles, chief executive of travel consultancy The PC Agency, said he believed the chaos at Britain’s airports would get “worse” following the Jubilee Bank Holiday.
His warning came as aviation data firm Cirium said 291 departures from major UK airports had been cancelled between May 25 and Tuesday.
Travel firm Tui also announced it had taken the “incredibly difficult decision” to axe 43 flights a week for the rest of June at Manchester airport.
“Monday 6 June scheduled to be the busiest day since 2019, with 2,864 departures from the UK, and the same number of inbound flights - it will be the busiest day since before the pandemic,” Mr Charles told MailOnline.
He added he did not think the issue was for the Government to solve.
“It’s for travel firms themselves to get themselves in order,” he said.
“It might mean sadly diverting money due to go into investment, or earmarked for new aircraft or into better check-in facilities to instead go towards hiring more staff. They’ve got some tough decisions to make.”
Tui Airways said in a statement: “Unfortunately, due to ongoing challenges in our operation, we have had to announce a small number of planned cancellations between now and 30 June from Manchester Airport only.
“We are directly contacting all impacted customers in departure date order and they will automatically receive a full refund. We can reassure our customers that the remainder of our flying programme is expected to operate as planned.”
EasyJet cancelled at least 31 flights at Gatwick on Tuesday, while British Airways is continuing to cancel dozens of flights each day.
Passengers reported long delays at several British airports, with one describing the situation at Heathrow Terminal 5 as an “utter shambles”.
Unite union general secretary Sharon Graham said those in charge of UK aviation companies “should hang their heads in shame”.
She added: “They got very rich on high profits and low pay. They then sacked and slashed wages for thousands of workers without a second thought during the pandemic. Now they are reaping what they have sown because, understandably, people don’t want to work for them anymore.”
