Summer visitors who struggled with long queues and delays on leaving the UK could find more trouble on their return journey as the centers of Europe and the US struggle with their own interruption of the journey.
Tourists have faced severe delays at UK airports such as Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, Bristol and Birmingham as they took advantage of Covid’s relaxed travel restrictions to enjoy a mid-term break.
Those lucky enough to avoid massive flight cancellations by airlines such as easyJet and Tui could have trouble returning to the UK by both air and rail, as other holiday transport centers popular reported interruptions.
In Ireland, passengers at Dublin Airport faced long queues stretching through the terminal gates. Pauline Moore, who missed her Ryanair flight from Dublin to Stansted on Sunday morning, said in a Facebook post that the situation at the airport was “a total disaster”.
An airport press release acknowledged the problem with so many passengers and said it intended to implement a new plan to “improve queue management, maximize staff resource availability and increase the number of safety lanes open at peak times “. .
Last week, the Dutch airline KLM largely suspended the sale of tickets for flights departing from Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, the third busiest in Europe, after queues in the streets .
An easyJet customer told The Independent that the situation at the airport was “total chaos” and that people were behaving “like animals”.
Schiphol CEO Dick Benschop promised that problems at the airport would “go away in the summer”.
The Paris Authority, which manages Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports, also warned of a major disruption. A tweet from his account said he had software issues affecting border controls and that this would lead to delays.
In a statement on its Twitter account on Wednesday, Eurostar said it was experiencing problems for similar reasons: “Our stations are very busy today. Passport and security checks are taking longer than usual due to problems with control systems of the French authorities “.
In Sweden, Swedavia airport operator CEO Jonas Abrahamsson has been summoned to parliament to answer questions about long queues at Stockholm’s Arlanda airport. Travel blogger Rakhee said on Twitter that queues at Arlanda were “horrible” and took “a few hours” to pass security and passports.
More than 2,500 flights were canceled in the U.S. during the four-day Memorial Day weekend. The industry struggled to cope with the increase in passengers, which caused delays at Los Angeles International Airport and Denver International Airport.
Airports and airlines were forced to significantly reduce staffing after a series of Covid blockades in Europe paralyzed the travel industry. But travel restrictions have now been reduced mainly and demand has increased as people try to go abroad.
However, despite significant hiring, Drive airlines and airports have failed to hire enough key workers, such as baggage handlers, to ensure that overseas travel runs smoothly.
Willie Walsh, director general of the International Transport Association (IATA), earlier this week downplayed the prospect of the chaos of travel spreading to other airports. He said: “There are problems at some airports, not all over the world.”