Dozens more flights were canceled today

SCHOOLS are back but the Easter travel chaos continued at UK airports today.

Dozens more flights have been canceled by British Airways and easyJet due to staffing issues.

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British Airways canceled 27 domestic and European flights to and from Heathrow today and easyJet canceled 10 European flights to and from Gatwick.

Milan, Menorca, Amsterdam, Malaga, Paris and Vienna are among those affected.

British Airways said it had given at least a week’s notice to passengers affected by the cancellations.

Today’s cancellations follow hundreds of scrapped flights and long airport queues over the Easter weekend which have been blamed on staff shortages.

Airports across the UK are facing major staffing issues due to increased demand from people wanting to travel abroad following the pandemic, as well as due to Covid-related absences.

But they’re having trouble finding recruits and getting their security checks done.

Manchester Airport, the is one of the worst hitsaw snakes entering the parking lot.

Lucie Spencer, 25, said yesterday: “It definitely is because of a massive staff shortageTUI basically had no check-in counters open, only self-check-in, which seemed to cause the huge queue.

“The security check was then associated with huge queues as only three out of eight security lanes were open.”

Ryanair boss Eddie Wilson has warned of trouble could continue well into the summer.

He said Wales Online: “I think some of the airlines are struggling, some of the handling companies are struggling, some of the airports are struggling, but again that applies to the economy as a whole.

“We saw truck driver shortages and supply chain disruptions late last year, but I think companies could have been better prepared.”

He added that “stopping and restarting an airline is difficult […] is a difficult thing,” but said Ryanair was in a “good position” for the summer.

And Kully Sandhu, chief executive of Aviation Recruitment Network, suggested it “could take at least the next 12 milliononts for the industryvacant to settle”.

He said it wasn’t just Covid causing problems when hiring new staff, which he said there were more than 300 vacancies at UK airports, but also Brexit.

He told the BBC: “Brexit has not helped because we had a natural attraction for people from the European market to apply for vacancies at UK airports.

“We no longer have that talent pool and are relying on individuals in the UK.

Lucy Moreton, general secretary of the ISU, which represents Border Force, said it was the “first time in living memory” that they could not hire enough candidates for the vacancies, adding that they were “catastrophically understaffed” for the Easter holidays .

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