London, Thanasis Gavos
Thousands of passengers have been stranded at British airports in recent days as hundreds of flights have been canceled or delayed.
The problems are attributed to the significant shortages of airline and airport staff, shortages associated with the coronavirus, at a time when travel demand has risen sharply following the lifting of all Covid restrictions in the UK.
Demand is particularly high for this week and next, as schools are already closed for Catholic and Anglican Easter on the 17th of the month.
For the flights that finally take place, the passengers are forced to stay for hours in huge queues to check their documents. In fact, the chaotic situation at Manchester airport led to the resignation of the head of the airport.
The new outbreak of the coronavirus in the UK last month is exacerbating pre-existing shortages of manpower at airports and airlines, as thousands of jobs were lost during lockdowns and severe travel restrictions.
The situation is worse in Manchester and Heathrow, London, but significant problems have also been reported at Birmingham, Gatwick, Newcastle and Glasgow airports.
A total of 1,140 flights were canceled during the week through Sunday at London’s two major airports, Manchester and Birmingham.
Indicatively, today British Airways will not make 78 of its scheduled flights. Many of these flights are canceled at the last minute, causing even more inconvenience to the passenger public. The company had already announced a flight reduction by the end of May.
Follow Skai.gr on Google News
and be the first to know all the news
