Many passengers are worried by the recent wave of cancellations that has struck the travel industry once more, with travel agents being inundated with calls from concerned customers wanting to know the status of their trip.
Unfortunately, these things are hard to predict, and with the summer holiday season fast-approaching in July, it’s unlikely that the staffing issues which the industry is currently battling will be resolved.
Julia Lo Bue-Said, CEO of Advantage Travel Partnership said: "Thirty per cent of everything my members are dealing with right now are calls from very anxious holidaymakers who have bookings, whose travel plans, as far as we know right now, will take place, but they are anxious because obviously, they're hearing all [about] the disruption.”
Read more: Airport travel chaos to hit summer holidays and could last for 18 months
Ms Bue-Said added that she hoped the industry will have recovered in time for the summer travel season, as many airlines were currently in the process of training new staff up.
However, Mike Clancy, general secretary of Prospect Union, told BBC’s Today programme that he was less confident about the key summer travel season, saying: "It would be difficult to give anybody the confidence at the present minute, that we are going to be okay by the school holidays in July.”
Will my summer holiday be cancelled?
Unfortunately, this is very hard to predict, but the good thing is there are still more than six weeks until schools finish for the year in the UK on July 21, so in theory there is still a good bit of time for airlines and airports to tackle some of the staffing backlog around the country.
A lot of the staff shortages that so badly affected air travel during the Easter break were at least in part due to Covid absences. It is expected that this will be less of an issue as cases are currently low in the UK and the warm weather means people will be spending more time socialising outdoors and therefore less likely to catch the virus.
However, a lot will still depend on individual airlines and airports and how they are coping at the time of your trip. As with all these things, it’s best to check with whoever you are travelling with ahead of your trip, and keep an eye out for any emails about possible changes to your journey.
