More cancelled flights fuel summer holiday fears

Cancelled flights and delays at airports are fuelling anxiety among UK holidaymakers ahead of the key summer season, travel agents have warned.

Advantage Travel Partnership, a network of travel agents, said 30% of its members were dealing with calls from people worried about future bookings.

It comes as thousands of travellers are thought to be stuck abroad after flight cancellations over the Jubilee weekend.

The disruption is being driven by staff shortages across the aviation industry.

Julia Lo Bue-Said, chief executive at Advantage Travel Partnership, warned there were "no guarantees" that by the summer the current situation will have improved.

"Thirty per cent of everything my members are dealing with right now are calls from very anxious holidaymakers who have bookings, whose travel plans, as far as we know right now, will take place but they are anxious because obviously they're hearing all [about] the disruption," she said.

Mike Clancy, general secretary of Prospect, a union representing staff working in airports and across aviation engineering, said recent cancellations was having a "really damaging impact" on people's confidence their travel plans would run smoothly.

"It would be difficult to give anybody the confidence at the present minute that we are going to be okay by the school holidays in July," he told the BBC's Today programme.

Ms Bue-Said added the industry was employing new staff and "a lot of them are in training already".

"Hopefully will give us much more time to get the industry where it needs to be by the busy summer period," she said.

Up to two million people were scheduled to fly to and from the UK over the bank holiday weekend, and the vast majority of flights have operated as expected.

But several airlines have cancelled flights, with easyJet scrapping a further 37 journeys on Monday.

According to aviation data firm Cirium, 305 flights departing the UK were cancelled out of total of 10,662 scheduled flights over the Jubilee weekend.

Most journeys - some 114 flights - were axed on Sunday and the airports worst affected were London Gatwick, London Luton and Bristol.

EasyJet cancelled the most flights on Sunday, totalling 64, while Wizz Air cancelled 15 departing flights and BA axed eight.

Many families have been particularly affected by Sunday's disruption, with children stranded abroad as schools return and the exam season for some begins.

Airlines are being blamed for taking more bookings than they can manage following steep staff cuts during the height of Covid when travel ground to a halt.

But industry leaders have argued the government could have done more to support the sector during the pandemic.

It has also called for immigration rules on hiring overseas workers to be relaxed to plug staff shortages, but Transport Secretary Grant Shapps ruled out such a move.

Mr Shapps said the government had been clear that it was up to industry leaders to tackle the problems, which were also seen at Easter, and accused airlines of having "seriously oversold flights and holidays".

Before Covid, airports and airlines across Britain employed around 140,000 people, but since then thousands of jobs have been cut, including around 30,000 for UK airlines alone.

Mr Clancy, of the Prospect union, said the aviation industry were warned of potential disruption in April and said the government was also "culpable" of withdrawing pandemic-related support from firms too soon.

However, he admitted the airlines "shouldn't have cut too many jobs".

He said employers needed to speak to unions to find ways to retain and recruit more workers.

"Ultimately this means fixing pay and conditions which have deteriorated significantly in recent years," Mr Clancy said.

"The problems we are seeing today are the result of a failed business model unable to cope with any level of stress in the system. Unless the government and employers can come up with a sustainable long term plan for the aviation industry that support jobs and skills then it is hard to see the situation improving."

Jen Kassel is currently stuck in Spain until Wednesday with her partner and three young children after her easyJet flight was cancelled on Sunday.

She said the family had been given no reason but had been offered accommodation at a hotel in Benalmadena with no budget for food.

"The kids were really stressed," she said.

In a statement, easyJet said it was "very sorry" for flights being cancelled and said the disruption was caused by "the ongoing challenging operating environment".

"Customers are being provided with options to rebook or receive a refund as well as hotel accommodation and meals where required, along with information on how to arrange this quickly online or via the app," a spokeswoman said.

"Our customer service hours and hotel accommodation sourcing have been extended to support impacted customers and help get them to their destination as soon as possible."

The Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) said the "vast majority of people" had been able to fly as normal and it expected that to be the case for the summer.

ABTA urged passengers to follow advice from airlines and airports for when to arrive for flights, as "many are arriving well before check-in begins which puts additional pressure on airport services".