Staff shortages at Bristol Airport are causing major delays for holidaymakers, with one passenger saying their 'trip was ruined' due to a hold-up at security.
Bristol Airport has responded after a man said he got to the gate to be told it's shut after waiting more than an hour-and-a-half to get his bag checked.
The airport says it apologises to customers impacted by above average queue times, adding staff shortages "can impact waiting times and service standards."
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It comes after two easyJet flights from Bristol Airport were cancelled yesterday (April 4) due to Covid-related staffing problems. More than 200 of the airline's flights have been cancelled since Friday.
Posting on Twitter, Owen Houlihan said: "Really poor stuff this morning. Held up for more than hour & a half through bag drop and security, one of our party who was behind us manages to get on, we get to gate to get told it’s shut, plane half empty and not leaving until 7am anyway. Trip ruined!
He added: “What we don’t understand is one of our party was behind us yet got through security and was let on flight. There were no announcements and plane didn’t leave for nearly another 40 minutes.”
Bristol Airport has responded, urging customers to arrive in the terminal a minimum of two hours before their flights. A spokesperson said: "We apologise to customers impacted by above average queue times for security on Sunday 3 April.
"We work closely with all business partners to ensure staffing levels are sufficient to provide our normal high levels of service to passengers. However, on some occasions staff shortages can impact on waiting times and service standards.
"Security and customer service teams were on hand to assist customers during the busy peak period. We constantly review resourcing across all areas and adapt plans to meet demand and build in resilience where possible.
"We advise all customers to arrive in the terminal a minimum of two hours before scheduled flight departure time to allow sufficient time to complete all the necessary check-in, bag-drop, security and boarding processes ahead of their flight.”
Easyjet also released a statement, saying it is cancelling some flights due to high rates of Covid infection. A spokesperson said yesterday (April 4): “As a result of the current high rates of Covid infections across Europe, like all businesses easyJet is experiencing higher than usual levels of employee sickness.
"We have taken action to mitigate this through the rostering of additional standby crew this weekend, however, with the current levels of sickness we have also decided to make some cancellations in advance which were focused on consolidating flights where we have multiple frequencies so customers have more options to rebook their travel, often on the same day.
“Unfortunately it has been necessary to make some additional cancellations for today and tomorrow. We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause to customers on affected flights.
"We have made 62 pre-emptive cancellations for flights to and from the UK for tomorrow which represents a small proportion of tomorrow’s total flying programme which was planned to be more than 1,645 flights. We cancelled the majority of these yesterday.” See the easyJet website for more information.
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