Update: EasyJet cancels hundreds more flights

The start of the Easter holidays has already seen chaos at British airports with BA cancelling 74 flights and EasyJet 52 yesterday, and more expected on Friday April 8th and over the weekend.

Yesterday’s cancellations affected more than 15,000 passengers and many more are epected to find their holidays dashed as staff illness is likely to result in more flights being grounded.

BA it is understood are offering “joining” bonuses as it trys to entice staff to either return to work or to joion the company as it battles to gear up for the increase in demand. Insiders however say that changes to remuneration packages, working conditions and schedule changes have put many off.

The fears are that this weekend will see many more passengers stranded over this weekend than last weeekend when well in excess of 200 flights werecancelled and often at short notice. The cancellations, are said to be down to staff illness according to the airline as Covid-19 once again spreads through the UK.

EasyJet said it had made efforts to combat the shortages by calling in standby crew on the weekend but was forced to make “additional cancellations” on Sunday and Monday.

An EasyJet spokesperson said: “As a result of the current high rates of COVID infections across Europe, like all businesses EasyJet is experiencing higher than usual levels of employee sickness.

“We have taken action to mitigate this through the rostering of additional standby crew this weekend, however, with the current levels of sickness, we have also decided to make some cancellations in advance which were focused on consolidating flights where we have multiple frequencies so customers have more options to rebook their travel, often on the same day.

“Unfortunately it has been necessary to make some additional cancellations for today (Sunday) and tomorrow (Monday). We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause to customers on affected flights.”

Staff shortages have not only hit the airlines but also the airports with travel chaos striking many of Britain’s airports including Heathrow and Manchester. Those shortages along with airline cancellations meant long queues at check-in counters and overcrowded concourses.

With many EasyJet passengers complaining they were not given much notice or told why flights were cancelled.

This weekedn is one of the busiest in the year and passengers are urged to check with the airlines before travelling to airports with asyJet, BA and others likely to cancel hundreds more flights.

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