Despite destroying the Platinum Jubilee breaks for tens of thousands of Britons during a half-term vacation from hell at airports, travel companies are still marketing cheap holidays and flights in June, MailOnline can disclose today.
Families have had plans canceled as they boarded aircraft, while others have been trapped at airports for up to 48 hours when flights were delayed or have had to wait for hours for their luggage to arrive owing to a staffing shortage.
Holiday companies have been accused of profiting by receiving money for trips that may or may not take place, and then using steep discounts to entice millions of people anxious for a vacation after two years of lockdown.
MPs are expected to launch an investigation into claims that holidays are still being sold but will not go ahead.
MailOnline can reveal that Tui – Britain’s biggest holiday operator and the firm whose customers have arguably suffered most – is still selling holidays from Manchester leaving this weekend despite axing six flights per day from the airport branded ‘hell on earth’ because of long queues and shops running out of food and water.
Despite carnage at Manchester, 180 of Tui’s seven-day breaks to destinations including Majorca, Gran Canaria, Morocco and Mexico are still being sold for as much as £1,500 per person, leaving on Friday. EasyJet has called off 200 flights this week alone, including 31 today, but was pushing holidays online and offering people £100 off their next trip if they booked by 11pm last night.
For the past five days, millions of Britons have suffered long queues at airport check-in desks across the country and some even brought pillows and duvets knowing they would have to sleep on terminal floors. Others passed out on baggage carousels while waiting hours for their suitcases, some of which never arrived.
Those caught up in the carnage have described being too frightened to go to the toilet in case they lose their place in queues snaking around Manchester, Stansted, Birmingham, Bristol, Gatwick and Heathrow airports.
And the row between airlines and the UK Government deepened as Dominic Raab accused them of failing to heed ministers’ warnings to recruit enough staff – and pointed out they had been given £8billion of support.
As chaos continued at airports across Britain today with 20 per cent of all flights now affected, the Deputy Prime Minister condemned airlines over a ‘lack of preparation’ for the post-pandemic surge in demand from tourists.
British Airways had already cancelled at least 124 short-haul flights due to leave London Heathrow Airport today, although said passengers were given advance notice – while easyJet cancelled at least 31 flights at Gatwick, including to destinations such as Bologna, Italy; Barcelona, Spain; Prague, Czech Republic; Krakow, Poland; and Edinburgh. Tui Airways is continuing to cancel six daily flights at Manchester Airport, which represents a quarter of its schedule.
Separately, there were also problems on international trains today, with long queues at London St Pancras as Eurostar services were delayed by up to an hour due to an IT issue affecting e-gates at the French border.
Amid huge queues at Gatwick, Bristol and Manchester airports today, one easyJet passenger at the latter said the situation was ‘carnage’, saying: ‘Took two hours 45 minutes to get through – most of that was bag drop. Now on the aircraft, but due to shortage of ground crew, there’s going to be another delay of approximately 50 minutes.’
Another easyJet passenger said they had to wait for two hours and 40 minutes to receive their luggage after landing at Gatwick shortly before 3am this morning. He said this was ‘simply not good enough’.
The Liberal Democrats have even called for the Army to be deployed to ease the queues, saying ‘drastic action’ is required ‘now to tackle this travel carnage and break the logjam’ after getaways were ‘thrown into disarray’.
Trade unions and the Labour Party say the Government has failed to provide enough support to the sector. But Mr Raab said Transport Secretary Grant Shapps had been talking to the industry for months about the return in demand, warning that ‘this will come and that you need to make sure that you’ve got your recruitment in place’.
Mr Shapps has warned tourism firms not to over-book flights and holidays amid fears travel chaos will drag on into summer, saying that scenes over recent days of travellers being reduced to tears ‘must not happen again’.
Police had to tell us our flights were cancelled
After fighting their way through ‘scenes of bedlam and huge queues’, Steven Hession, wife Kerrie and their two children were left disappointed after their long-awaited trip to Greece was cancelled.
Steven and Kerrie Hession from Blackburn, Lancashire
But, to add insult to injury, it was police – not TUI staff – who were sent in to tell passengers at Manchester airport on Saturday they weren’t going anywhere.
Mr Hession, of Blackburn, Lancashire, said they were told almost four hours after their scheduled departure time and had then been left ‘stranded’ for another two hours before finally being allowed to leave.
The moment police broke the news to passengers was caught on video. The 45-year-old, who works for British Gas, added that TUI had sent a text informing the family that their £4,000 holiday to attend a relative’s wedding in Greece had been cancelled due to ‘significant operational disruption’.
He said: ‘It’s not great for the mental health, after packing and all the excitement, then being sent home.’
Determined not to miss the big day, the family have spent another £1,000 booking alternative flights.
He also accused operators of ‘seriously over-selling’ trips which they could not deliver due to a staff shortage crisis.
Explaining the extent of problems, aviation expert Luke Farajallah from Specialist Aviation Services told LBC radio: ‘It’s about 20 per cent of flights that are affected across the UK across all airlines and across all airports.’
Aviation data firm Cirium said 377 flights from UK airports were cancelled in the seven days up to and including yesterday.
Gatwick has been worst hit with 151 cancellations, then Manchester (41), Heathrow (36), Bristol (27) and Edinburgh (19). Some 10,794 flights are scheduled to depart from UK airports between tomorrow and Sunday.
It comes as one pilot at Manchester Airport was forced to call the police to help hundreds of passengers disembark an ‘abandoned’ plane after they were left sat on the runway for three hours due to staff shortages.
Holidaymakers were left onboard the aircraft on Monday evening, with the Tui flight due to take-off for Tenerife, before officers were called in by the exasperated crew. Families had already been delayed by a few hours in boarding the plane, which was due to depart at 5.50pm, eventually getting into the craft at 7pm.
Ground crew took so long to load luggage that the flight was cancelled, before ‘abandoning’ them. Passengers were then stuck waiting inside the hot plane for three hours before being helped off by police at 10pm.
Airlines now fear disruption at UK and European airports will continue for months as passenger numbers further ramp up post-pandemic.
According to an internal briefing document, Airlines for Europe – the continent’s largest airline association – expects disruption to drag on ‘for a good chunk of the summer season’.
Experts say it will only be averted if operators offer higher wages and ministers further speed-up the background checks new staff must go through.
Mr Raab told Sky News today: ‘It’s good news that more holidaymakers have got the confidence post-Covid pandemic to say, ‘OK, do you know what, we’re going to book these flights’.
‘There’s obviously been a surge in demand. Throughout the pandemic the Government has provided £8billion of support. There’s been some tweaks to the regulation to make it easier for the airline industry to hire.
‘And I think also there’s clearly been a lack of preparation for that surge back in demand of holidaymakers.
‘And Grant Shapps, the Transport Secretary, has been talking to the industry for months now, saying that this will come and that you need to make sure that you’ve got your recruitment in place.
‘Inhumane’ airport ordeal after spending £2,500 to attend wedding in Cyprus
It should have been a dream holiday – but ended up an ‘inhumane’ ordeal.
Having spent £2,500 to attend a wedding in Cyprus, Jen Burnett and daughter Chloe, four, arrived at Manchester Airport three hours in advance – and spent 11 hours there as Sunday’s flight was cancelled by operator TUI.
Their 5.30pm departure time came and went with no announcements. At 11.30pm, the marketing worker, 38, from Bebington, Wirral, had to find a hotel. ‘It was horrendous,’ she said. ‘The way they treated my daughter is inhumane. When we got through security there was no proper food – only chocolate and crisps. I had to book us into a Travelodge at a motorway services and pay £50 for a taxi. It was 1am when I got Chloe something to eat.’
Thankfully Monday’s rearranged flight to Paphos took off on time and they made it to the wedding. TUI expressed its apologies.
‘So I know that there’s a bit of finger pointing going on at the moment, but that’s the support and that’s the advice.
‘I don’t think the airline operators have done the recruitment they should have done and taken the advice that the Transport Secretary gave them.’
Mr Raab also said he does not know if aviation bosses are looking to access tax records that would help them to recruit staff more quickly.
He told Sky News: ‘I don’t know the details of that. But I do know that we’ve made some changes on the regulatory front because we know that there’s a demand for recruitment and we want to help the airline industry deal with that.’
It comes after a furious Mr Shapps said last night: ‘It’s been very distressing to see passengers facing yet more disruption at airports – having well-earned holidays cancelled and plans left in disarray.
‘We’ve been clear that industry leaders need to tackle the issues we saw at Easter head-on. Although some steps have been taken, we are still not seeing the progress we need to.’
He added: ‘We will be meeting with airports, airlines and ground handlers again to find out what’s gone wrong and how they are planning to end the current run of cancellations and delays.
‘I also want to be reassured on their plans for the upcoming summer holidays. We need to make sure there is no repeat of the scenes witnessed over the last few days.
‘Despite government warnings, operators seriously oversold flights and
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