Covid cases, staffing issues and pilot shortages are fuelling chaos in airports which has seen Brits stuck abroad and airports filled with monster queues.
Over the past week, airports across the UK including Manchester, Gatwick, Bristol and Birmingham have faced chaotic scenes with huge queues at security and check-in, while airlines have been delaying and cancelling hundreds of flights.
People have been bumped off flights at the last minute, while others have found themselves stuck overseas for days longer than they expected, causing them to miss school and doctors appointments.
While delays and cancellations aren't new, issues in recent months have been increasing as the travel industry struggles to cope with the demand post-lockdown.
The chaos was particularly bad this half term, with major carriers including BA, TUI and easyJet cancelling dozens of flights over the course of the week.
Unfortunately for those hoping to jet off somewhere sunnier this summer, the airport and airline issues look unlikely to improve anytime soon.
One of the biggest factors is staffing issues which are affecting both airports and airlines.
Low pay, long hours and shifts ending late at night or on weekends make positions such as baggage handler particularly unattractive, especially in periods of low-unemployment where jobs are easier to come by.
Low levels of staffing at airports are a key part of why the industry is struggling to keep planes and queues moving.
"The problem is that during furlough some were asked to take on paid leave, maybe be laid off temporarily, 'yeah we're going to put you on hold, when everything comes back to normal you'll be the first person to be employed," an anonymous baggage handler told the BBC's PM.
"That went on. And people have financial commitments, so they moved on. I know one (baggage handler) who has ended up being a fireman.
"Another colleague, he is running his own restaurant. Some decided to go back to their country, some are working as plumbers and electricians.
"I can tell you, about three days ago one of those people was travelling through the airport and he was saying it's the best decision of his life."
Even if there is a sudden surge of potential applicants, the security focused nature of the recruitment process means positions are hard to fill quickly.
For example, references need to be gathered from previous employers which can be particularly time consuming for people who have worked several jobs during the pandemic.
Airlines for Europe, Europe’s largest airline association, expects the problems impacting airports and airlines in the UK and Europe to persist “for a good chunk of the summer season” the Financial Times reports.
The group, whose members include easyJet, British Airways owner IAG and Ryanair, blamed a series of factors for the chaos.
These include staff shortages, long waits for new staff to pass background checks and also higher than normal sickness rates.
While pandemic social distancing restrictions have been lifted in the UK, coronavirus is still infecting people and forcing them to isolate, meaning whittled down workforces are further impacted.
Another factor is Brexit, which has meant many Europeans who may have come to the UK looking for work are now no longer allowed to do so.
Over the weekend Labour Mayor of London Sadiq Khan urged the Government to relax visa rules to deal with the staff shortages at airports.
“The government should recognise that there are shortages in this occupation, of those who work in aviation,” the mayor told BBC1’s Sunday Morning .
“What you can do very easily is to make sure those who were in those jobs before, who’ve gone back to their country of origin in the EU, are encouraged to come back."
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Transport Secretary Grant Shapps denied that the issues were Brexit related, even though problems at the UK's airports are more severe and wide ranging than those in any EU country.
He told interviewer Sophie Raworth: “The answer can’t always be to reach for the lever marked ‘More immigration’.”
“We are seeing the same problems across Europe. If it were only to do with Brexit, then there wouldn’t be a problem at Schiphol (airport in Amsterdam) or elsewhere. So that clearly can’t be true."
In a proactive move to deal with the issues, British Airways recently decided to cut 8,000 roundtrips from its March to October timetable.
easyJet made a similar move as it cancelled several hundred flights in April and grounded dozens in May, as well as a cancelling a further 80 on Sunday. Meanwhile, TUI announced that it was cancelling a number of flights from Manchester until the end of June.
BA points out that the challenges facing the aviation industry since the coronavirus pandemic broke out are enormous in their scale.
Globally the industry lost more than £145bn and an estimated four million jobs since the start of the pandemic, with the knock on impact on staffing levels still being felt to this day.
EasyJet alone cut 1,400 jobs at the beginning of 2021, while BA axed 10,000 during the pandemic, eventually rehiring about 4,000 as of last summer.
A BA spokesperson said that ramping up capacity from 30 to 80 per cent in a short space of time was "always going to be challenging, but this is being faced by the industry and not just us".
They added: "The past few weeks have been challenging for the entire industry and at British Airways we're completely focused on three priorities: our customers, supporting the biggest recruitment drive in our history and increasing our operational resilience.
"We've taken action to reduce our schedule to help provide certainty for our customers and are giving them maximum flexibility to either rebook with us or another airline as close to their original departure time as possible, or to receive a full refund."
An easyJet spokesperson said: "easyJet is operating around 1,650 daily flights across the network, carrying around a quarter of a million people each day."
Have you been affected by the delays or cancellations? Email us on webtravel@reachplc.com.
