PASSENGERS were forced to wait in long lines at Stansted airport, and then they had to lie on the floor for fear of being cancelled.
More chaos was experienced by tired passengers as a combination of strikes and staff shortages continues to make air travel more difficult.
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As passengers arrived by train at the airport, there were long lines to get out of Essex’s station.
This is because airlines have until Friday to avail of a government-funded program “amnesty”Airport slots rules allow airlines to modify their schedules without being penalized.
Ministers ordered airlines to revise their flights following the May half term chaos. It was blamed on a lack of staff and airline personnel.
Sky News spoke with Therese Cooper, Work and Pensions Secretary. She said: “Airports and airlines released many people after the furlough programme had ended.
“Perhaps they didn’t anticipate the desire of people to leave the country.
“It matters that airlines have confidence flights can be delivered and passengers know well in advance if their flights is cancelled. “
BA’s flights from Heathrow Airport are likely to bear the brunt of cancellations this week.
Due to staff shortages, there have been queues at security check-in desks at UK airports as the industry recovers from the Covid pandemic lockdowns.
After more than 700 British Airways employees at London Heathrow voted to strike, the situation will only get worse.
Spain’s Easyjet workers went on strike last Wednesday and two more are scheduled for later in this month.
The 72-hour strikes will involve hundreds of crew at their airline’s bases in Barcelona, Malaga and Palma.
There are triple the number of passengers flying in and out of Britian’s airports this summer compared to last year.
Because there is not enough staff to meet the demand, hundreds of flights have been cancelled or delayed.
Some passengers are reporting that they are having to wait hours for their luggage to be returned after flights, and that bags and suitcases are being left on carousels.
GMB/United Unions will set strike dates to affect BA Heathrow staff around July 22, as children start school holidays.
BA disputes a 10% pay cut taken by check-in and ground-handling personnel during the Covid pandemic.
The Unions demand that full-time workers are paid again.
Yesterday Heathrow also stopped all departures, as passengers had to wait for hours for their baggage.
As staff struggled to fix a fuelling system problem, thousands of passengers were stranded at Britain’s busiest airport.
Just before 2 p.m., the Jet A-1 system failed. The departures resumed an hour later.
It meant that large numbers of holidaymakers were left behind at their gates while others had to wait onboard.
One fed up traveller tweeted: “What’s going on with your fuel delivery system?
“Sitting on the plane at the gate because we can’t get fuel. So many missed connections.”