Holidaymakers face queues, cancellations and delays
Holidaymakers are facing flight cancellations and the prospect of delays on the road as half-term starts and the UK gears up for an extended bank holiday weekend.
The June half-term traditionally heralds the start of the summer tourist season, and this year comes amid rebounding consumer demand for leisure breaks following the relaxation of UK Covid travel restrictions.
At the start of the busiest period for travel since the pandemic, the weekend saw travellers stuck in hour-long queues at several airports, and strings of flights cancelled by airlines including easyJet and Tui.
At Manchester airport, where earlier in the spring many passengers missed their flights after waiting hours to pass through security amid staffing shortages, there were fresh problems.
The airport, which along with much of the aviation industry has struggled to recruit staff after making redundancies during the pandemic, warned on its official Twitter page that there were delays at check-in and baggage reclaim.
The airport tweeted that it was “aware of challenges being faced by a number of airlines and handling agents” and, apologising for the situation, urged passengers to contact their airline.
Matthew Ashton, vice-president of design at toymaker Lego, was one of the passengers to share the problems at Manchester airport on Sunday. He tweeted that this Ryanair flight had been “sat on the runway yet again for about an hour”, unable to take off, because luggage from the previous flight had not yet been unloaded.
Dublin airport also warned passengers on Sunday that they might miss their flights because of “significant queues” inside the terminal for check-in, bag drop and security. About 50,000 passengers were due to depart from the airport during the
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