Queues in front of the buildings and canceled trips: the chaos is great. What’s going on in the UK?
Travelers in the UK should continue to expect long waits and last-minute changes to their plans over the next few days.
A representative of the British government, Secretary of State Stephen Parkinson, blamed the companies for the chaos of the current holiday phase in an interview with Sky News on Tuesday, during which queues formed at several English airports to get out and many trips were cancelled. “We’ve told the industry that they need to prepare and hire enough people so that people can travel and enjoy their vacations,” Parkinson said. Companies should have hired more employees.
Tui and Easyjet cancel flights
Travel company Tui is canceling almost 200 flights at Manchester Airport by the end of June. The low-cost airline Easyjet also canceled more than 200 flights in the period up to June 6th. Passengers also had to wait a long time at several airports on Tuesday, such as Bristol or London’s Gatwick and Heathrow airports.
According to the Guardian, many of the delays or short-term cancellations of flights are actually due to staff shortages. Several companies – such as Manchester Airport – hired hundreds of new employees after the peak of the pandemic, some of whom still have to go through training and safety checks and are therefore not yet operational. A representative from the GMB union told the BBC it is now almost impossible to find staff in the industry. Many have migrated to other areas in the course of the pandemic.
School holidays and Queen’s Jubilee
Industry expert Alex Macheras predicted a “summer of chaos” on Twitter, and several British newspapers also dedicated their front pages to the turbulence on Tuesday. The chaos is expected to continue in the coming days as celebrations for the Queen’s jubilee begin in the UK on Thursday and a long weekend for most Britons. Also, there are school holidays in England this week.
