With an extra long weekend for the Jubilee and half-term for thousands of kids across the UK, many families are taking advantage and setting off on their first foreign holiday for two years. According to research by American Express, this summer is set to be a bumper year for travel, with 40 billion dollars expected to be spent, up from 5 billion dollars last year.

Is the country ready? There are pictures of people sleeping on floors, long lines at airports, and hundreds of flights being canceled on social media. I spoke to Hilary Osborne, the Guardian's money and consumer editor, about why this is happening and whether it will improve in time for summer. You may want to keep reading if you have a holiday booked. The headlines first.

  1. Boris Johnson and his allies have launched an emergency effort to lobby wavering MPs as he faces the threat of a confidence vote in his leadership. At least 44 Conservative MPs questioned Johnson's fitness to hold office by Tuesday night.

  2. The governor of Luhansk province in eastern Ukraine said that Russian forces had taken control of most of the city. He said that street fighting was going on even though Russia had not surrounded the city.

  3. Criminal acts of violence at GP surgeries have almost doubled in five years, new figures show, as doctors warn of a perfect storm of soaring demand and staff shortages.

  4. The deportation flight to Iraq was canceled by the Home Office. Up to 30 Kurdish asylum seekers were facing deportation in the first flight of its kind in a decade.

  5. A prestigious accolade that attracts thousands of tourists and guarantees millions of pounds of funding and investment has been given to the city of Bradford.

Travellers queue to check in for their EasyJet flights at Gatwick Airport in London, Britain, 31 May 2022.

Travellers queue to check in for their EasyJet flights at Gatwick Airport in London, Britain, 31 May 2022. Photograph: Tolga Akmen/EPA

Over two million people are expected to travel over the bank holiday weekend. airports across the country are facing significant disruption due to the increase in Covid-hit years. People are being told to wait for hours at a time for flights that are getting canceled. Why? Hilary says that it's a perfect storm of inflation, Covid, and the effects of Britain leaving the European Union.

Why is this happening?

When travel abroad was halted more or less completely in 2020, we should look back to understand what's happening now. In the year 2021, there were almost a million fewer flights than in the year 2019. The industry took a hammering during the first lockdown, and despite the government funnelling the biggest companies money to help keep them afloat, it wasn't enough: tens of thousands of jobs were cut.

It wasn't clear when things would get better for the travel industry and when they needed to gear up their operations again, because everything was dependent on how the Pandemic would turn out. It may seem obvious that when the world opened up again there would be a surge in demand for flights. They can't really be blamed for holding back.

It looks like things are getting back to normal in Britain after a robust vaccination campaign, loosened border restrictions and no sign of a more dangerous variant. According to the Financial Times, the number of scheduled flights last month was almost identical to the number of flights in 2019. The infrastructure isn't back in place, the people aren't there and of course once you start, airports are struggling to cope with the increased demand.

Covid is not the only one.

Despite a big recruitment drive, the aviation industry isn't able to fill roles quickly enough. Airlines need a lot of different jobs to operate, but there are a lot of staff shortages following the Pandemic. Huge numbers of workers are needed in airports and some of the jobs are sensitive, requiring lengthy background checks and training. In desperation, airlines have started to relax some of their policies.

Paul Charles, CEO of the PC Agency tells me that the aviation industry traditionally hires people from Europe. It costs more to hire people because of inflation, the industry is in competition.

Many employees were paid to leave travel firms, so the companies are having to offer incentives to bring them back in. The factors make travelling for customers more difficult.

What's next?

Hilary says that there are too many moving parts to make big predictions. The disruptions are going to continue in the coming weeks. Despite all the demand, the global industry is still set to lose $11 billion this year. There is no guarantee that a holiday this summer is going to go smoothly.

If the airline industry is able to get its house in order before the next holiday peak at the end of July, they will be able to mitigate a lot of the disruption. That's a big deal. It is highly unlikely that people will put their holiday plans on hold for a third year, so there is a good chance that the chaos will continue for a while.

Is anyone interested in Magaluf 2023?

What else we’ve been reading

  • There are 29,725 people who were born in the UK before 2005 who don't have the right to know who their parents are. It's wrong to stop someone from knowing who they are if you're a daughter of one of them. Archie.

  • After leaving Moscow, Ivan Philippov wrote about his changing relationship with his Russian identity.

  • For more than a decade, the death of independent bookshops has been predicted. The independents have mounted a quiet comeback. In the New Statesman, Swindells explains why Amazon surrendered. Archie.

  • It is the profile we have been waiting for. Sarah Manavis talked to Lavigne about her early career and how her music has found a new home on TikTok. Nimo.

  • There are a lot of true stories in prestige drama at the moment. Adrian Horton writes persuasively about why that might not be great news, because it turns out a high bar for overcoming the distracting, basic tension of what really happened versus what is on screen.

Sport

In what he called a tough match, Nadal beat his old rival in the French Open. The semi-finals will feature Nadal and Zverev.

The club wants more information on the scope of the report into the chaos outside the final.

Want the latest football news? We offer a daily football newsletter, The Fiver, and a weekly football newsletter, Moving the Goalposts.

The front pages

Guardian front page, 1 June 2022

Guardian front page, 1 June 2022 Photograph: Guardian

The Guardian splashes today with a story about ministers accused of fueling anger as violence hits GP surgeries. The Financial Times says that the EU-UK pact on insurance ban deals is a blow to Russian oil exports. The Mirror has a jubilee plea from theArchbishop. Boris may be toast as the Metro's lead is growing restless over partygate. The ethics chief threatens to resign over No 10 parties, according to the Telegraph. The PM is trying to save his job. The Express reports that holiday chaos comes despite spending 8 billion dollars.

Today in Focus

A shopper passes a sign advertising a sale in London, Britain, 12 May 2022.

A shopper passes a sign advertising a sale in London, Britain, 12 May 2022. Photograph: Neil Hall/EPA

Is the UK headed for a recession?

Boris Johnson was asked if the UK economy was heading for a recession. Not necessarily at all, he replied. Richard Partington gives an explanation as to why we are facing economic uncertainty.

Cartoon of the day | Ben Jennings

Ben Jennings’ cartoon.

Ben Jennings’ cartoon. Illustration: Ben Jennings/The Guardian

The Upside

There is a bit of good news to remind you that the world is not all bad.

The cast of Netflix’s Heartstopper, a coming-of-age series portraying ‘a new generation’s queer experience.’

The cast of Netflix’s Heartstopper, a coming-of-age series portraying ‘a new generation’s queer experience.’ Photograph: NETFLIX

The success of Heartstopper is due to the happy ending it gives its characters. The idea that the show might end as it did, with a tear-jerkingly joyful celebration of young queer love in full bloom, was not something Michael Segalov believed in. I believed that my own experiences at school had taught me a lot.

Segalov reports that the premise of Heartstopper is part of a broader trend that shows the angst and trauma that we have become so accustomed to seeing.

You'll get a weekly recap of The Upside sent to you every Sunday.

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