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ARCHIVED - easyJet apologises for travel chaos but promises even more flight cancellations
Around 30 flights from Heathrow, some destined for Spain, have been cancelled today
easyJet has apologised to customers for failing to "deliver the service they have come to expect from us" this week while in the same breath admitting that countless more flights will be grounded as a result of staff shortages, post-Covid demand for holidays and ground handling issues at airports.
The airline is only one of many that has been scrambling to deal with huge delays and a flood of cancellations in recent weeks as carriers struggle to cope with the renewed passenger numbers, and more trouble is on the horizon as Ryanair cabin crew are set to strike over low pay and poor working conditions for six days at the end of this month.
In the UK, Gatwick will be the airport most affected by easyJet’s cut-backs but overall, it is expected that the move will result in the cancellation of up to 10,000 flights throughout the busy summer season of July, August and September. The airline’s chief executive, Johan Lundgren, however, said that no decision has yet been made on how many flights will be pulled.
easyJet said in a statement: "In response to these caps and in order to build additional resilience, easyJet is proactively consolidating a number of flights across affected airports.
"This provides customers with advance notice and the potential to rebook on to alternative flights."
It added that the vast majority of passengers will be booked on flights the same day.
Mr Lundgren blamed Brexit for creating difficulty for Europeans to move between the UK and other countries, and said that easyJet is still able to recruit staff without any difficulty but that security clearance for new personnel is taking far longer than before.
He added: "Delivering a safe and reliable operation for our customers in this challenging environment is easyJet's highest priority and we are sorry that for some customers we have not been able to deliver the service they have come to expect from us.
"While in recent weeks the action we have taken to build in further resilience has seen us continue to operate up to 1,700 flights and carry up to a quarter of a million customers a day, the ongoing challenging operating environment has unfortunately continued to have an impact which has resulted in cancellations."
As a result of the announcement of yet more cancellations, EasyJet shares were down more than 2.7% on Monday June 20.
Meanwhile, the fun continues at Heathrow airport where bosses have asked the airlines to cancel 10% of their scheduled flights due to chaos at baggage control.
Over the weekend, passengers waited hours at the airport to retrieve their baggage without explanation and today, some 5,000 travellers will be affected as carriers have agreed to axe 30 flights.
A Heathrow spokesperson said: "We apologise unreservedly for the disruption passengers have faced over the course of this weekend.
"The technical issues affecting baggage systems have led to us making the decision to request airlines operating in Terminals 2 and 3 to consolidate their schedules on Monday 20th June.
"This will enable us to minimise ongoing impact and we ask that all passengers check with their airlines for the latest information."
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