A number of airlines have cancelled flights from various airports, particularly at London Gatwick as the travel chaos continues into another weekend. The budget airline easyJet has cut 80 flights today and apologised to customers for the disruption, "We are very sorry and fully understand the disruption this will have caused for our customers," the airline promised, "We are doing all possible to fly them as soon as possible to their destination."
British Airways and Wizz Air are among the other airlines that have all axed flights or altered their schedules as they struggle to cope with the demand of passengers and lack of staff.
The difficult situation was further compounded by a sudden power cut at London Luton Airport which forced scores of aircraft to divert to other airports. According to airport authorities, the power failure caused a temporary loss of a number of navigational aids. Engineers have since resolved the issues and flights were landing and departing again, but some knock-on disruption was likely.
London mayor Sadiq Khan has blamed all of the lengthy queues and mass cancellations on Brexit, yet he didn't elaborate on how Brexit had caused similar travel chaos in Paris, Amsterdam or in the U.S.
Transport Minister, Grant Shapps said the government provided £8 billion of support to the aviation sector during the pandemic, along with furlough support, so decisions to cut staff had been made by the industry which was the main cause of the staff shortages. "When someone has bought a ticket for a flight, they've every right to expect that flight will take off, and not find that flight has been cancelled," he said adding, "Airlines should be cautious about not overselling those flights, [and] where there are problems they need to fix them quickly."
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