Stansted airport offers passenger advice amid staff shortages

Passengers travelling from Stansted asked to allow extra time for security checks and to arrive early

Passengers at an airport with hundreds of vacancies are being advised to allow extra time to get through check-in and security this Easter.

London Stansted in Essex is recruiting 800 staff and, although it is not seeing the delays at some of the UK's other terminals, it has asked customers to arrive in "good time".

A spokesman said "there may at times be longer queues than they are used to".

A total of 1.3m passengers are expected over the Easter school holidays.

Stansted said it expects 240,000 passengers to pass through the terminal on the Easter weekend alone, compared with 8,000 last year, when Covid restrictions were still in force.

Steve Griffiths, Stansted's managing director, said: "I want to reassure people that we are working hard to get back to where we need to be."

On Tuesday, Karen Smart, the director of Manchester Airports Group (MAG) which owns Stansted, resigned following criticisms of long security queues which led to passengers missing flights at Manchester Airport.

Staff illnesses due to Covid, and a shortage of staff after many were laid off in the pandemic, has meant longer queues and cancellations as many airports struggle to recruit.

Stansted, which has seen relatively few cancellations, still has a major staff shortfall and needed to fill some 800 job vacancies.

'Big shortage'

The airport began a major recruitment drive in January "to fill hundreds of roles in our security operation, and partner organisations like airlines, ground handlers and Border Force have also been recruiting" said Mr Griffiths.

Kully Sandhu, director of Aviation Recruitment Network which is leading a recruitment drive at Stansted, said: "Everyone is after the same candidate, and there is a big shortage of labour."

"You've got experienced individuals who used to be working at the airport and who were made redundant when furlough payments ended - [they] are now no longer interested in entering the aviation market," he said.

Brexit and the loss of European workforce had also affected the shortfall of available staff, he said.

Meanwhile, the Emirates airline said it would be resuming flights between Dubai and Stansted, with five a week from 1 August, becoming daily from 1 September.