Passengers advised to fly with just one bag

UK holidaymakers have faced disruption this week including delays checking-in luggage

Airline passengers should take just one carry-on bag on holiday with them and not check-in luggage to avoid delays, according to industry figures.

The GMB union, which represents aviation workers, said if people don't check-in luggage it "limits the disruption".

Hundreds of flights have been cancelled this week due to staff shortages across the sector.

The industry has met with the government to address the problems.

"It is one less thing to worry about. If people can check in online and do not take bags, that limits the disruption," Andy Prendergast, national secretary of the GMB, told The Daily Telegraph.

"It's not a magic bullet but it does reduce the chance of there being problems."

Meanwhile Paul Charles, chief executive of travel consultancy PC Agency, said: "The smaller the bag, the less time you spend in security queues. That would reduce the queues during the busiest weekend of the year so far."

John Irving, chief executive of Liverpool Airport, said he was not advising travellers to limit their luggage. But he told the BBC's Today programme: "I think people have to make their own decisions to be honest on what they think is right for them, whether or not that's carrying hand luggage or getting there three hours earlier than their flight."

So far, at least 377 flights out of the UK have been cancelled since 25 May, according to flight tracking firm Cirium, affecting thousands of people who booked holidays over the half-term break and the Jubilee bank holiday weekend.

Workers

Before Covid, airports and airlines across the UK employed around 140,000 people, according to industry body Airlines UK, but thousands of jobs were cut as travel ground to a halt.

More than 30,000 members of staff were laid off from UK airlines alone. The industry says it is now working to refill the vacancies.

Following a meeting with the travel industry on Wednesday evening, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said he understood the sector's staffing problems but added it "does not excuse poor planning and overbooking flights that they cannot service".

He said airline bosses should have been preparing for a "surge in passenger demand following two years of travel closures".

The BBC understands that at the meeting, airlines and airports asked Mr Shapps to add industry workers to the government's shortage occupation list which would allow companies to recruit staff from overseas.

However, Mr Shapps rejected the idea.

David Evans, group joint chief executive of Collinson Group, which operates airport lounges across the UK, said Mr Shapps should reconsider.

"I think if we're going to get levels back to what we expected, if we're going to get the economy going then we've got to look again at bringing in workers from other countries," he told the BBC.

"The industry has suffered a huge amount of uncertainty throughout Covid - the sort of yoyo-ing of rules and regulations meant that a number of staff left the industry."

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps met with the aviation sector to address the disruption seen at airports

But plans to quickly rehire those workers have been hit by strict background checks carried out on aviation workers.

British Airways alone said "thousands" of new recruits were still waiting for their security clearance.

The aviation industry has asked for direct access to HM Revenue & Customs tax records in order to speed up the vetting process for potential new hires. Despite data privacy concerns, it is hoped that the move will remove red tape and streamline recruitment in the sector.

Other ideas for avoiding travel chaos this summer were put forward in Wednesday's meeting between the government and the industry.

But a spokesperson for the Department of Transport did not elaborate on what policy proposals had been made, or accepted.