EasyJet is to cancel more than 200 flights over the next 10 days, causing disruption for families heading abroad on half-term holidays. The airline said about 24 flights a day from London’s Gatwick airport would be cancelled between 28 May and 6 June. It said the cancellations were necessary “to provide reliable services over this busy period”. It comes after a software failure that forced EasyJet to cancel about 200 flights on Thursday. The issue affected airports across the UK. A further 20 EasyJet flights were cancelled on Friday morning, with a “small number” of TUI flights also delayed, including three for more than 24 hours.
EasyJet said the latest cancellations were unrelated to the IT issue, which is now resolved. It said a range of issues were impacting its operations and contributing to the cancellations, including air traffic control restrictions, runway works and airport handling delays. In a statement, the airline said: “We are very sorry for the late notice of some of these cancellations and inconvenience caused for customers booked on these flights however we believe this is necessary to provide reliable services over this busy period. “Customers are being informed from today and provided with the option to rebook their flight or receive a refund and can apply for compensation in line with regulations.” The airline will still be operating around 1,700 flights per day over the next week.
A woman has described how her family missed her father’s funeral because their flight was cancelled by EasyJet minutes before departure. Tracey was booked to fly from Geneva to Bristol with her two sons to attend her father David Dane funeral. Their flight was one of about 200 the airline cancelled at short notice on 26 May. “My problem isn’t that the flight was cancelled,” she said. “It was the fact that there was no one to deal with the situation, this meant I had to watch my dad’s funeral from a hotel room.”
Around 8,000 flights are expected to depart from UK airports over the weekend. Meanwhile, the motoring organisation the RAC warned of congestion on the roads and said drivers were planning an estimated 17.8 million leisure trips between Friday and Sunday. Saturday is expected to be the busiest day. Earlier, Liverpool fans travelling to Paris for the Champions League final in Paris faced long queues at the Port of Dover.
Some supporters complained of “chaos” as they were stuck in hours-long queues alongside holiday-makers heading abroad for half-term. There were also long waits at airports including Manchester, Stansted and Bristol. Passengers have faced delays and cancellations at airports in recent months following the easing of Covid restrictions on international travel. The travel industry cut thousands of jobs during the pandemic, but as demand for flights has returned, it has struggled to recruit staff, carry out security checks and train new workers quickly enough.
