Bank holiday travellers face severe delays and disruptions
Travellers hoping to get away for the bank holiday weekend by road, rail and air are being advised to adjust their travel plans or “pack their patience” in anticipation of traffic jams, train disruptions and plane seat cancellations.
According to aviation data from Cirium, about 290,000 seats have been cut from August bank holiday flight schedules in recent weeks. Outbound flights for the approaching weekend are 21% below 2019 levels, and approximately 900 inbound flights between Friday and Tuesday have been cancelled.
Paul Charles, the chief executive of The PC Agency travel consultancy, said: “Our aviation sector should be growing strongly on one of the busiest weekends of the year, and not held back by staff shortages and poor planning by airports and ground handlers.”
Industrial disputes, staff shortages as a result of Brexit, and rising inflation has buckled the aviation sector, resulting in severe delaysand surges in air fares. Airlines across the sector have been forced to introduce caps on operations at Heathrow and Gatwick airports.
In July, British Airways scrapped nearly 380 departures. EasyJet axed almost 90 outbound flights, and Flybe removed more than 130.
“It’s astonishing to see over a quarter of a million seats cut from flight schedules, at a time when demand to fly remains high,” Charles told PA Media. “There are aircraft ready to be used but not enough people to get them prepared and off the ground.”
Similar disruption is expect on the nation’s roads and railways. The breakdown company RAC predicted more than 12.5m journeys would be made by holidaymakers between Friday and Monday, with 2pm to 7pm on Friday likely to be the busiest period.
“We’re expecting busy roads to continue throughout this bank holiday
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