BA and easyJet cancel more than 150 flights as travel chaos continues

British Airways and easyJet had to cancel more than 150 flights to and from the UK on Wednesday, as travellers faced further departure lounge delays going into the Queen's jubilee bank holiday.

The airline said passengers were given advance notice of the cancellation.

At least 31 flights were canceled by the low-cost carrier easyJet at the airport.

Six flights a day from Manchester airport have been canceled by the travel operator. Staffing shortages at Swissport, which manages check-in and baggage handling, were blamed for the move.

A passenger on an easyJet flight took a picture of a long queue of people in the car park at Manchester airport, which was taken shortly after 4am.

The passenger described the situation as carnage, taking two hours 45 minutes to get through. Due to a shortage of ground crew, there will be another delay of 50 minutes.

Between Thursday 2 June and Sunday 5 June, more than 300,000 passengers will pass through the airport. The airport apologized and said it was in contact with senior management. Passengers are advised to arrive three hours before their flight. Another easyJet passenger complained of having to wait for more than two and a half hours to collect their luggage, after they landed at Gatwick shortly before 3am. This was simply not good enough.

After the easing of all UK Covid travel restrictions, demand for foreign trips rebounded after several weeks of delays and disruption at airports across the UK.

Many workers in the aviation industry were made redundant or left the sector during the Pandemic when international travel was halted for months at a time, and as business picks up again, airlines and airports are struggling to recruit staff and get their security clearance finalized.

Travel firms had oversold flights and holidays relative to their capacity, according to the transport secretary, Grant Shapps.

Shapps called for a meeting with airports, airlines and ground handler to find out what has gone wrong and how they are going to end the current run of delays and canceled flights.

Shapps said that this must not happen again and that all efforts should be directed at avoiding a repeat of this over the summer.

Government Covid travel restrictions made international travel difficult and costly, and airlines and airports requested specific financial support for the sector.