Tui to cancel 180 flights from Manchester airport in June

theguardian.com:

The holiday company Tui is cancelling more than 180 flights from Manchester airport until the end of next month as half-term travel chaos continues unabated.

Tui said they were axing six flights a day at the hub from 31 May until 30 June, adding to the chaos facing passengers at airports this week as they battle lengthy queues and cancelled takeoffs.

Tui, which had already announced some flight cancellations and delays at the weekend, blamed “ongoing disruption in our operation at Manchester” for the “incredibly difficult decision” to cancel 43 flights a week.

Manchester airport said they were “disappointed” to see travellers’ holiday plans disrupted by the move, which they put down to staff shortages at Tui and its ground handler Swissport, which manages its check-in and baggage handling.

The transport minister, Andrew Stephenson, said on Tuesday that the government was working to minimise disruption for travellers after passengers at airports including Gatwick, Heathrow and Manchester have reported significant delays.

He told Sky News the travel industry should have been better prepared for a surge in post-pandemic holidays, adding that the disruption was causing “a lot of distress” to those caught up in it.

Many Tui travellers had bought their trips as a package, so would have had their whole holiday cancelled as well as the flight. Tui said it could not confirm the number of passengers affected, or how many holidays would be cancelled.

In a statement, Tui said: “We would like to apologise to our customers who have experienced flight delays and cancellations in recent days and understand that many of our customers have been looking forward to their holiday with us for a long time.

“Due to the amount of ongoing disruption in