Thousands of passengers are ‘not where they want to be’ this morning following technical problems with easyJet’s passenger booking system.
The latest problems facing travellers trying to go on much-needed holidays come as union Unite warns of more half term and summer disruption due to staffing issues.
Travel expert Simon Calder told Good Morning Britain that the hundreds of flights cancelled would have a big knock-on effect today with around 30,000 people ‘in the wrong place’. People have been facing delays at a number of airports around the country with some reports saying people are missing their flights as a result of some of the issues with check-in taking two hours for some.
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Wales Online reports the latest problems come as leading trade union Unite warned delays at some airports over Easter will be repeated during next week’s half-term holidays and will be worse during the summer.
General secretary Sharon Graham said: “During the pandemic, when airline operators, and others in aviation, slashed jobs to boost corporate profits, we warned this corporate greed would cause chaos in the industry. The aftermath of mass sackings is now chronic staff shortages across the board.
"Aviation chiefs need to come clean with the public. This is a crisis of their making. We are determined that workers will not pay for this crisis. Current pay and conditions in the industry are so poor that workers are voting with their feet. It can only be resolved by offering higher wages and better working conditions for staff.”
easyJet grounded all of its flights over a major issue on Thursday (May 26) for two hours after suffering a major tech failure in all its planes. While the worst of those issues have eased, there are still some cancellations and delays to easyJet flights today to add to the issues with queues at check-in.
Speaking from Heathrow on Friday morning, travel expert Simon Calder said: “There are passengers who have woken up this morning with early flights to Milan and Majorca have seen cancellations from Gatwick airport. That is on top of the 200-plus flights cancelled on Thursday because of the IT glitch.
“It means a total of 30,000 easyJet passengers waking up this morning, not where they wanted to be at all. There is lots of pressure on finding seats and ways of getting people where they need to be. The airline has to find an alternative flight, or people will have to book themselves on other airlines.”
In a statement the airline said: “easyJet can confirm that the earlier IT systems issues have now been rectified. Unfortunately, they resulted in some cancellations and while we expect to operate most of our remaining flying programme some may still be subject to some disruption in the coming hours. We advise customers due to travel with us to continue to check Flight Tracker for the status of their flight before making their way to the airport. We apologise for the inconvenience caused and customers can apply for compensation in line with regulations.”
Consumer group Which? urged affected passengers to make claims for compensation from the airline. Travel editor Rory Boland said: “Thousands of passengers are facing huge inconvenience and many will be left out of pocket by this IT failure.
“The airline must also offer the option of a refund or to rebook passengers on any reasonable route as quickly as possible, using other carriers where necessary.”
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