Thousands of Britons stuck at airports as easyJet cancels another 80 flights

After easyJet canceled another 80 flights on Sunday, UK travellers faced more travel chaos as drivers returned from the half-term and jubilee weekends.

Tens of thousands of British travellers are stuck at airports across Europe after a number of flights were canceled.

An estimated 12,000 people were affected by easyJet's cancellation of 80 flights due to the challenging operating environment.

A number of British Airways and Wizz Air flights to and from Gatwick were canceled on Sunday after a power failure at the airport.

The AA had predicted that 19 million drivers would get behind the wheel over the four-day weekend.

Thousands of tube station staff are due to walk out on Monday after talks to avoid a strike failed. The tube is not open between Monday morning and Tuesday morning.

The easyJet cancelations mostly affected the airport. At least 7,000 passengers were affected by the cancellation of 22 arrivals and 25 departures on Saturday.

The airline apologized and said it understood the disruption it would cause. We want to get them to their destination as quickly as possible. The airline said it had extended its opening hours, and was helping those affected find a hotel.

There were flights from Barcelona, Nice, Madrid, and other places.

It was a bad week for airports in the UK, with long lines, delayed takeoffs and hundreds of flight cancelations. Staff shortages, IT issues and poor weather are to blame for air traffic control restrictions.

After all international travel Covid restrictions were removed in the UK on 18 March, airlines and airports are struggling to keep up with demand.

Air travel ground to a halt in Britain over the past two years, leading to the layoffs of tens of thousands of employees. easyJet has shed 10% of its workers, while Gatwick has lost 40% of its direct employed staff.

The boss of the budget airline called for military personnel to be brought in to help with airports disruptions.

The airlines want the government to relax its immigration rules so they can hire staff.

Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, was not interested in either suggestion. He said that more immigration was not the answer and that he wouldn't send in the armed forces to help. They have the same issues in Europe. There are problems across Europe if you look at the problems they are having in Amsterdam.

Dublin, Paris, LA, Toronto and Amsterdam have all been hit by staff shortages and delays this week. On Saturday, the national carrier of the Netherlands called off all of its flights from other parts of Europe in order to clear up a large group of passengers. It wants to solve the issues by hiring more staff and paying more.

The long queue at most UK airports had ended by Sunday, but there were concerns that the problems could recur in the summer when demand peaks again.

Shapps said hiring and training more staff was the best way to solve the underlying issues.

The state could play a bigger role if the working group announced last week is anything to go by.

More people need to stay in the sector. We will do everything in our power to get the sector back to normal as quickly as possible.

Shapps said it was important that airlines did not oversell flights, which had caused some passengers to have their entire holidays canceled, and that travellers should get automatic reimbursement for canceled foreign holidays.