Travellers have been facing disruption at Bristol Airport today with several flights delayed and some cancelled. More queues have been reported at the eighth largest airport in the UK as lines of people snake outside the terminal building.
Bristol Airport is urging passengers to not arrive too early for their flights after long queues built up since yesterday.
People have been turning up five hours early to catch their flights but the airport says that is adding to the problem and creating more congestion. Passengers have shared their experiences, posting pictures of long queues stretching outside the terminal as well as big crowds building up inside.
According to the airport’s website, two flights to Amsterdam have been cancelled with others to destinations such as Rome and Izmir delayed.
The last few weeks have seen high levels of stressed passengers due to flight cancellations and security delays. But it seems, the disruption at Bristol Aiport is set to continue. People have taken to social media to provide snapshots of how their day is currently unfolding.
Others reported busy scenes but a fairly swift queue through security, with Sally Brown posting: “There are different queues for the different airlines. TUI was queuing outside, EasyJet was not bad. And security took 30 minutes at 4 am.”
Aviation analyst Alex Macheras said the UK was seeing some of the worst of the disruption, which he believes is down to the aviation sector as a whole being “incredibly short of staff”.
“We’re seeing the after-effects of all the decisions taken in the pandemic, meeting this early surge in summer demand. Tens of thousands of staff were let go because of the pandemic and these companies are so short of staff.”
Mr Macheras said he expected scenes of long queues and disgruntled customers to continue until September. “It’s a lengthy process to recruit, train, get security clearance. The situation is desperate,” he added.
In other news, passengers at Cardiff Airport have also taken to social media this evening to share their frustration at the cancellation with the TUI travel agency for a holiday package to Tenerife.
One passenger, Shane Burney who was due to fly from Bristol Airport to Amsterdam tomorrow has shared a text informing him that his flight was cancelled with less than 24 hours’ notice, and he claims it’s the same for all flights to Amsterdam
