Passengers queue inside the departures terminal of Terminal 2 at Heathrow Airport. Photo taken June 27, 2022Image source, Reuters
Image caption, Busy airports have become a familiar sight this year.

Some people are going abroad for the first time since the Covid epidemic. Chaos is occurring at some UK airports.

Over the last few weeks, a number of airline workers have been speaking to the news.

The inside story was given to us from front-line staff.

They talked about what's happening behind the scenes and how the airport and airlines have responded to them.

A British Airways cabin crew member based at Heathrow Airport told the BBC that most long-haul flights are operating short of crew, which has a knock on effect on staff fatigue.

He said the company was "recruiting like mad" to fill the gaps because flights are still crewed above the legal minimum. Delays to processing airside passes can make this process take a long time.

We have to go through a lot of security checks in order to get hired. It is too slow.

Most of the team were happy to be flying with customers again.

He said that the cabin crew felt a negative feeling as the plane descended into the airport. You used to think you would be on the way home after landing. How long will this last?

Delays in getting passengers and crew off the plane are caused by a lack of airport workers and cleaners.

We don't feel we can leave the plane and go somewhere else. It is a big security risk. Delays to that sort of thing make me sick to my stomach.

British Airways said that they were grateful for the hard work of their colleagues and that they were doing everything they could to support them.

Image caption, Throughout the summer, pictures of baggage piled up at airports has become a common sight.

A senior cabin crew member at a major airline that operates out of Heathrow said that the pressure on staff to get back to work made the situation worse.

Stress is leading to high sickness rates and absences. Flight cancellation can happen even a couple of hours before a plane is due to leave if stand-by cover is reduced.

It's much harder because we're flying our socks off to the legal minimums and maximums. They leave because we have to do half their jobs and it's not what they expected.

When it's someone's first real job, customers can be very rude.

The baggage handler has worked at the airport for 12 years.

He said that a duck on water is manic.

There aren't enough baggage belts for a lot of flights. You might have to wait half an hour for a belt. It will get worse within half an hour. When you walk out and see all the people, it's depressing.

In more than a decade of ground handling, he has never seen anything like it.

He thinks the problems are related to a lack of investment and a system that is 40 years old.

He says it's like a really bad snow day but three months of it. School holidays will be worse. I don't want to go on holiday. The chances of your bag making it are very slim.

The baggage system in T2 is old and we want to replace it as part of the next regulatory settlement.

All parts of the airport are operational and there is no shortage of airport workers.

Both the air crew and the ground handler work for airlines.

The summer holidays will be a test of the industry's resilience.

In order to better match demand to available resources, schedules and ambitions have been trimmed, and some airports have placed limits on flight or passenger numbers.

The calculation shows that this type of disruption is better than last-minute delays.

Will it be enough to make sure everything goes smoothly?

Some businesses have done better than others on the staffing front, and some airlines have done better than others in terms of canceling flights.

Hundreds of new security officers have been hired by airports.

Aviation involves many different teams and businesses.

There are some weak spots in the ground handler's staff.

Firms say that they have done everything they can to minimize the chances of further disruption and delays, and that they are focused on getting people away for their long-awaited holidays. No one can promise a hitch free summer.

Image caption, Airport staff have told BBC News that they believe there has been a lack of forward planning ahead of the summer holidays.

A pilot who has worked for Virgin Atlantic for decades says airports are more chaotic this year.

He said staff have their own security queue which has been longer than normal, and he thinks that is because there are fewer people. The passenger queue has been longer this summer.

The passengers seem to know that the industry is stressed out. We didn't have a captain so I was called out from stand-by. The passengers were waiting for the gate to open so they could board the plane. I received a round of applause and high fives.

The cabin crew told him that passengers are in good spirits, but staff are stressed. Minimum cabin manning levels are being worked at by cabin crew.

He believes the company has adopted a hostile working culture.

Due to airside ID referencing delays for new crew members, we have recently operated some flights with fewer cabin crew than would normally be on board.

The crew complement on all flights are in compliance with the safety regulations.

We apologize to any of our customers who have been affected by longer wait times or sticking points in their journey, as we recognise the challenges that Heathrow Airport faces this summer.

The pilot who is taking a break from the industry said that his experience of the aviation industry was of a gradual decline with periods of chaos due to that decline and not being prepared.

The current problems are the effects of decisions made since the start of the Covid epidemic.

His biggest criticism is the drive for low prices and big profits where "everything gets cut to the bone and during odd times it will mean system breakdown"

The story was written by James Kelly and others.

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