Thousands of British tourists were stranded in overseas countries after series of operational problems affected airlines and airports. The situation worsened between Saturday and Sunday, at the end of Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee holiday.
The companies canceled nearly 500 flights to or from the UK during the four-day festivities. Dozens of the suspensions were made at the last minute, according to data firm Cirium.
The low cost airline EasyJet made many of these cancellations and confirmed the addition of another 37 flights to the list this Monday (6). Passengers, according to the statement, were informed before arriving at the airport. The company added that it expects “similar levels of early cancellations of around 30 flights a day” in the coming days.
The airline said the vast majority of its flights were operating normally and blamed “the current challenging operating environment” for the disruption, citing there are no crew shortage issues for the northern hemisphere’s peak summer season.
In all, about 15,000 passengers were affected by last-minute changes only this Sunday (5). According to travel consultancy PC Agency, it can take up to three days for delays to be made up for everyone to be able to return.
Many of those whose flights were canceled are school staff and students who were due to take exams this week. Michael Norman, who had a trip from Faro in southern Portugal to Manchester on Sunday, said EasyJet did not inform passengers of the cancellation until they were at the boarding gate.
He claims he spent £750 on accommodation and new flights, after hearing from the company that he would be reassigned to the “next available flight”, for which there was no date or time information. “We have no idea about anything, it’s like they abandoned me. They shouldn’t take people on vacation if they can’t take them back.”
Passengers have suffered from ten days of disruptions, delays and cancellations at many UK airports as the aviation industry struggles to cope with a surge in demand for travel.
The problems spread to other parts of Europe, including the Netherlands, Ireland and Sweden. In the United States, the problem has persisted for more than a year, with peaks having been recorded earlier this year, when a wave of bad weather was added to the rise in Covid cases linked to the omicron variant, impacting crews.
In the UK, the government, airlines and airports have pledged to work together to resolve the crisis, following an emergency meeting held last week.
A working group was created from the meeting to analyze how the government could act in order to help companies mobilize their frontline employees. The companies have suggested shortening the period for background checks and allowing details of this hiring bureaucracy to be reported directly by the employer to the customs department, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Government officials rejected a call to loosen Brexit-imposed immigration rules — a move the airlines said would allow skilled foreign workers to enter the country more easily to help ease the crisis. According to the federal administration, the segment is guilty of laying off many employees and selling excess tickets.
“The airline industry was the first to enter and the last to leave government restrictions [para conter a pandemia]. Now travel is coming back faster than anticipated and airlines are having to catch up in an already saturated job market,” says Andrew Crawley, Chief Commercial Officer, American Express Global Business Travel.
The confrontational tone adopted by the British government has frustrated some in the industry, who feel that official support during the crisis has not been enough. Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said last week that the government had provided £8bn in aid during the pandemic, but more than half of that went to write off commercial loans that had been raised privately.
On Monday, London’s Heathrow Airport said it would recruit another 1,000 employees and that on June 14, Terminal 4 will reopen for the first time in two years to help free up space in other areas.
