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The carrier cancelled more than 200 flights over the weekend due to Covid sickness
Countless passengers have had their travel plans thrown into disarray as easyJet has cancelled more than 200 flights with very little notice, reportedly due to staffing shortages as a result of Covid. Some 222 trips have been pulled since Friday April 1 and another 62 flights were axed from Monday’s schedule.
The company said that, while every effort was made to mitigate the disruptions by “rostering” additional staff, the shortages resulting from coronavirus-related illness forced easyJet into “additional cancellations for today (Sunday) and tomorrow.”
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".
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“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.”
The cancellations have added fuel to the fire of disgruntled passengers whose holidays got off to a shaky start over the weekend with reports of hours-long security queues in Heathrow and Manchester.
Heathrow attributed the delays to high passenger volumes and Covid document checks, but staff shortages have also been reported here and many travellers claim that several of the automatic e-gates, designed to make the process quicker, weren’t working properly.
A spokesman for Manchester Airport said passengers were being advised over the weekend that “security queues may be longer than usual” and urged to arrive early for their flight”.
As Easter holidays have begun for many in the UK, the travel situation is likely to become much more stressful, with baggage handlers at Heathrow airport threatening a strike over pay between April 8 and 10.
Image: Archive
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