Airport chaos continues as Britons are left trapped abroad

Today is expected to be the busiest day for British airports in three years, leaving Britons detained abroad or unable to leave the country.

Today, as the four-day bank holiday weekend and half-term holidays come to a conclusion, will be the busiest day for air travel since before the pandemic, with 2,864 departures from the UK and the same number of inbound flights.

After 15,000 individuals were affected by last-minute modifications yesterday, more lineups were visible this morning at airports like Stansted, Manchester, Bristol, and Edinburgh. According to experts, clearing the backlog will take three days.

There had been 24 cancellations at Gatwick today, with ten departures and fourteen arrivals; another 14 at Luton, with eight departures and six arrivals; and four at Heathrow, with three departures and one arrival as of 8 a.m. There were 20 easyJet cancellations, 12 WizzAir cancellations, and five British Airways cancellations when broken down by airline.

Meanwhile, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has refused to help short-staffed airlines by loosening visa requirements in order to reduce travel misery, and has also ruled out bringing in the army to help with lineups at Britain’s beleaguered airports.

Thousands of families returning from half-term and bank holiday vacations have been delayed abroad, while others have experienced more delays, with airlines such as easyJet and Wizz Air canceling more flights today.

Due to a power outage yesterday, planes flying to Luton were diverted hundreds of miles away, and there was also trouble on the trains, with Eurostar passengers waiting up to eight hours for their trains due to a power outage on the line near Paris, and London’s Euston station being evacuated after a fire alarm went off.
It was the culmination of a disastrous week for British vacationers, which saw understaffed airlines cancel hundreds of flights at the last minute, forcing police to deal with enraged crowds.