With Easter school holidays getting under way for many families across the UK, the international transport network is creaking badly.
Both British Airways and easyJet are cancelling dozens of flights every day – with at least 15,000 passengers affected by Thursday’s groundings alone.
BA’s cancellations are short-haul operations from Heathrow, while easyJet’s main base, Gatwick, is seeing the highest number of axed departures for the airline.
Hundreds more cancellations of domestic and European flights are expected before and during the Easter weekend.
If your flight is going ahead, then there’s the airport to contend with. The managing director of Manchester airport has stepped down after weeks of extremely long queues for security at the UK’s third-busiest airport.
Meanwhile, motorists hoping to sail over from Dover this weekend are set to experience more gridlock.
The RAC says to avoid the M25 around London and A303 near Stonehenge this weekend. And looking further ahead, if you plan to spend Easter in the UK, one of the key intercity routes will be largely closed.
So what are the prospects for travellers this week and in the buildup to the Easter weekend – and what are your rights if it all goes wrong?
British Airways and easyJet blame staff shortages due to Covid-19 but, interestingly, other short-haul airlines – such as Ryanair, Wizz Air and Jet2 – do not seem to be having problems.
Regardless of the cause, the standard rule when a flight is cancelled – as defined by the Civil Aviation Authority – is that you are entitled to travel on the original day of departure.
If the cancelling airline cannot get you there on its own planes, and a seat is available on another carrier’s flight, it must pay for your trip on its rival airline. This is entirely separate from cash compensation, which is intended to make up for inconvenience rather than pay for alternative transport.
Looking at Thursday’s grounded 7.35am British Airways flight from Heathrow to Milan Malpensa, for example, BA can put you on the 11.30am flight on the same route. It will also have to pay £220 in compensation under air passengers’ rights rules.
If the cancellation happens while you are at the airport, you are also due “a reasonable amount of food and drink” depending on the length of the delay.
For easyJet’s cancelled Thursday morning flight from Gatwick to Kefalonia, the airline will need to spend hundreds of pounds getting you there. It has no other services on the route, and indeed it has cancelled the only link from the UK to the beautiful Aegean island that whole day.
The alternative is a flight to Athens, an overnight stay at an airport hotel, meals and an onward domestic flight. Plus, of course, the compensation. This is ferociously expensive for the airline – but also extremely inconvenient for passengers.
UK airports have seen passenger numbers in the past two years dip to 5 per cent of pre-pandemic levels – with some falling to zero. With hindsight and limitless cash, aviation would have kept the tens of thousands of experienced (and security-cleared) staff who left the industry during the coronavirus pandemic.
One strategy is to turn up ridiculously early – for example, at 3am for a 7am flight (though if you are checking baggage, you will need to ensure your airline’s check-in desk will be open).
At leading holiday airport Gatwick, North Terminal security opens at 2am and South Terminal at 3.30am. Checkpoints at Heathrow generally open at 4am.
But for the first wave of flights, numbers build up very quickly – by 5.30am, many UK airports are very busy.
