Brits face another day of travel chaos as bosses warn huge queues and delays could last for MONTHS

FAMILIES attempting to get away for the Easter break have been stuck in more airport queues today after days of chaos continue to disrupt holidaymakers. Huge queues built in the early hours of the morning across Manchester Airport this morning, as hundreds of people waited to get to their flights as early as 3:30am. One […]

FAMILIES attempting to get away for the Easter break have been stuck in more airport queues today after days of chaos continue to disrupt holidaymakers.

Huge queues built in the early hours of the morning across Manchester Airport this morning, as hundreds of people waited to get to their flights as early as 3:30am.

LNP

Manchester Airport passengers arrived early to more queues today[/caption]

LNP

Many passengers were stuck outside the airport due to the length of the queues[/caption]

LNP

Some said they waited hours to go through security[/caption]

One woman tweeted a video of the long queues, commenting: “Well this is a birthday treat at 4.45am at #ManchesterAirport.

“This is just the queue for security, starting outside the building. It takes me 1m24 to walk the length of this bit of the queue.”

One Twitter user added: “Chaos at #ManchesterAirport this morning security queue of around 1000 people outside at 4.50am. Inside confusion with people unclear where to check in and where to queue.”

Another person wrote: “If you never see me again…. I’m still in the queue at the airport #manchesterairport total disgrace.”

“Queue snaking for miles out side the terminal building for security.”

Many said even paying for Fast Track made no difference with queues taking more than an hour.

One passenger showed the departure board with 14 flights doing the Final Call, due to people still being stuck in the queues.

Manchester Airport has blamed their delays on staffing issues, when holidaymakers were seen “jumping over barriers” and trays piling up at security scanners over the weekend.

It comes just hours after easyJet and British Airways were forced to cancel hundreds of flights, due to staffing issues.

And British Airways has reduced its schedule between now and the end of May to try and avoid more travel problems, after thousands of passengers had their flight cancelled due to IT issues.

The issues aren’t just a UK issue; at Dublin airport this weekend travellers complained of missed flights because of lengthy queues at airport security.

A spokesperson has blamed the issues on a struggle to rehire staff after a number of employees were let go during the pandemic.

Travel bosses have warned that long queues and delays could continue for months, due to Covid staff shortages and a slow return to recruitment.

General Secretary of pilots union BALPA Martin Chalk said: “The chaos witnessed at British airports may well be repeated throughout the summer because airlines, laden with debt […] have not yet rehired enough staff.”

He added that he “warned ministers” of Easter disruption, but nothing was done to prevent it.

A source at another airport said, according to the Telegraph: “For passengers, the travel experience is going to feel different to what they were used to [pre-pandemic].”

And it isn’t just the airports facing problems – the suspension of P&O services saw queues up to nine hours over the weekend coming into Dover.

Even the Eurotunnel was hit with delays up to three hours after a train stopped in the tunnel.

Here’s what you should do if your flight is cancelled.

And we’ve explained how to claim compensation if you flight is delayed or cancelled.