Travellers told to only take carry-on luggage to avoid disruption

Airlne passengers should try to limit their luggage in order to avoid travel disruption, industry leaders have said.

Amid hundreds of cancelled flights and airport queues, the head of the GMB union, said travellers should try to avoid taking check-in luggage and should attempt to only bring carry-on bags to the airport.

Andy Prendergast, national secretary of the GMB told The Daily Telegraph: “It is one less thing to worry about. If people can check in online and do not take bags, that limits the disruption.

“It’s not a magic bullet but it does reduce the chance of there being problems.”

Paul Charles, chief executive of travel consultancy PC Agency, said: “The smaller the bag, the less time you spend in security queues. That would reduce the queues during the busiest weekend of the year so far.”

He also told passenegrs to check-in online where possible in order to limit disruption. His comments come as multiple airlines have been forced to cancel flights due to staff shortages.

According to flight tracking firm, Cirium, 377 flights have been cancelled since May 25.

It is estimated, up to 30,000 lost their jobs at UK airlines during the pandemic as many companies were forced to cut back.

Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps met with executives to discuss the issues the sector faces but has rejected placing industry workers on the Govenrment’s shortage ocupation list which would allow them to recruit from abroad, the BBC reports.

David Evans, group joint chief executive of Collinson Group said: “I think if we’re going to get levels back to what we expected, if we’re going to get the economy going then we’ve got to look again at bringing in workers from other countries.

“The industry has suffered a huge amount of uncertainty throughout Covid - the sort of yoyo-ing of rules and regulations meant that a number of staff left the industry.”

It has emerged holidaymakers heading for Spain have faced long queues when they touched down.

Weary tourists arriving at Majorca Airport are taking an average of nearly three hours after landing to reach the coaches waiting to take them to their hotels.

The problems have been blamed mainly on a lack of police at passport control, especially on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays when most of the flights bringing in package holidaymakers land in Majorca.