Airport travel chaos as easyJet and British Airways cancel more than 300 flights
Manchester Airport: Staff shortages causing huge delays
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The airline explained the disruption is due to high levels of sickness among employees as well as staff shortages caused by Covid.
Over 60 flights which had been scheduled for Monday have also been cancelled.
An easyJet spokesperson explained on Sunday: “As a result of the current high rates of Covid infections across Europe, like all businesses easyJet is experiencing higher than usual levels of employee sickness.
“We have taken action to mitigate this through the rostering of additional standby crew this weekend, however, with the current levels of sickness we have also decided to make some cancellations in advance which were focused on consolidating flights where we have multiple frequencies so customers have more options to rebook their travel, often on the same day.
“Unfortunately it has been necessary to make some additional cancellations for today and tomorrow.
“We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause to customers on affected flights.
“We have made 62 pre-emptive cancellations for flights to and from the UK for tomorrow which represents a small proportion of tomorrow’s total flying programme which was planned to be more than 1,645 flights.
“We cancelled the majority of these yesterday.”
Hundreds of holidaymakers have been left stranded without an alternative flight home.
British Airways has also cancelled many flights at Heathrow due to staff shortages with over 90 cancellations reported on Monday.
Simon Calder explained “during Covid many airline staff left the industry”.
This has caused a major issue now as “they try to recruit and there’s a shortage,” said the travel expert.
He reported from Heathrow on Monday: “The airlines don’t seem to have the airport staff in place to cover this.”
He explained it’s not a matter of simply hiring more staff as they have to be trained and that can take time.
Manchester Airport also experienced similar issues in recent weeks as it struggled to cope with delays amid staff shortages.
The airport was unable to cope with the hundreds of passengers stuck at the airport due to delays.
A spokesman for Manchester Airport said: “We apologise to passengers whose experience at Manchester Airport has fallen short of the standards they expected.
“As we recover from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, our whole industry is facing staff shortages and recruitment challenges.
“As a result we are advising customers that security queues may be longer than usual, and we encourage them to arrive at the earliest time recommended by their airline.
“Due to the security checks and training associated with these roles, it takes time for people to be able to start work in our operation. That is why we are exploring a number of short-term measures to deliver the best possible service we can, such as the use of agency staff and different ways in which existing colleagues can support our operation.
“We are aware similar challenges are being faced by airlines and third parties, such as baggage handling agents, operating on our site. Together, we are working hard to deliver the best possible service we can in the circumstances, and to resolve these issues as quickly as possible.”
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