Fears grow for summer holidays after flight cancellations

Cancelled flights and delays at airports are fuelling anxiety among UK holidaymakers ahead of the key summer season, travel agents have warned.

Advantage Travel Partnership, a network of travel agents, said 30% of calls to its members were from people worried about future bookings.

Thousands of travellers are thought to be stuck abroad after flight cancellations over the Jubilee weekend.

The disruption is being driven by staff shortages across the aviation industry.

The problems are taking time to resolve and Advantage's chief executive warned there were "no guarantees" the situation would have improved by the summer.

"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," said Julia Lo Bue-Said.

Ms Bue-Said said airlines were already employing new staff, many of whom were already undergoing training, and that she hoped the industry would be ready by the busy summer period.

However, Mike Clancy, general secretary of Prospect, a union representing staff working in airports and across aviation engineering, said recent cancellations were having a "really damaging impact" on people's confidence.

"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," he told the BBC's Today programme.

A sustainable long-term plan for the industry if the problems are to be resolved, he said, including better pay and conditions for workers in the sector.

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• Firms have oversold flights and holidays - Shapps

Up to two million people were scheduled to fly to and from the UK over the bank holiday weekend, and the vast majority of flights have operated as expected.

But several airlines have cancelled flights, with EasyJet scrapping a further 37 journeys on Monday.

According to aviation data firm Cirium, 305 flights departing the UK were cancelled out of total of 10,662 scheduled flights over the Jubilee weekend.

Most journeys - some 114 flights - were axed on Sunday and the airports worst affected were London Gatwick, London Luton and Bristol.

EasyJet cancelled the most flights on Sunday, totalling 64, while Wizz Air cancelled 15 departing flights and BA axed eight.

Families have been particularly affected by Sunday's disruption, with children stranded abroad as schools return and the exam season begins.

Cirium said 189 international flights were cancelled to the UK over the long weekend, with the majority from the Netherlands (39 flights), Spain and the Canary Islands (24), France (24) and Germany (21).

Overbooking and cuts

Airlines are being blamed for taking more bookings than they can manage following steep staff cuts during the height of Covid when travel ground to a halt.

But industry leaders have argued the government could have done more to support the sector during the pandemic.

It has also called for immigration rules on hiring overseas workers to be relaxed to plug staff shortages, but Transport Secretary Grant Shapps ruled out such a move.

Mr Shapps said the government had been clear that it was up to industry leaders to tackle the problems, which were also seen at Easter, and accused airlines of having "seriously oversold flights and holidays".

Before Covid, airports and airlines across Britain employed around 140,000 people, but since then thousands of jobs have been cut, including around 30,000 for UK airlines alone.

Mr Clancy, of the Prospect union, said the government was "culpable" for withdrawing pandemic-related support from airlines too soon.

But airlines had cut too many jobs, he said, and now needed to find ways to retain and recruit more workers.

"Ultimately this means fixing pay and conditions which have deteriorated significantly in recent years," Mr Clancy said.

"The problems we are seeing today are the result of a failed business model, unable to cope with any level of stress in the system.

"Unless the government and employers can come up with a sustainable long term plan for the aviation industry, that supports jobs and skills, then it is hard to see the situation improving."

The Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) said despite the recent disruption the "vast majority of people" have been able to fly and it expected that to be the case for the summer.

ABTA urged passengers to follow advice from airlines and airports for when to arrive for flights, as "many are arriving well before check-in begins which puts additional pressure on airport services".

Stuck in Spain

Jen Kassel is currently stranded in Spain with her partner and three young children after her EasyJet flight was cancelled on Sunday.

She said the family had been given no explanation, but had been offered accommodation at a hotel in Benalmadena.

"The kids were really stressed," she said.

Nikolai Brooks and his wife Vicky, who live near Brighton, have been stuck at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam since Saturday after their EasyJet flight was cancelled.

Their new flight for Monday evening has already been delayed by three hours.

They have had to pay for two extra nights in a hotel near the airport, which has cost them about £600, not including food, Mr Brooks told the BBC.

"We didn't even get an email through that it had been cancelled," he said. "It's more frustrating for my wife, she's a teacher and she was due back for today."

In a statement, EasyJet said it was "very sorry" for flights being cancelled and said the disruption was caused by "the ongoing challenging operating environment".

"Customers are being provided with options to rebook or receive a refund, as well as hotel accommodation and meals where required, along with information on how to arrange this quickly online or via the app," a spokeswoman said.