What's the truth behind the news on flight cancellations?

Yazmina

I'm due to fly to Cyprus in mid July, but I'm worried about the flight being cancelled. Are travellers offered alternative flights or just being abandoned by the airlines? Is the problem mainly with the smaller airlines at the smaller airports, or across the board? Thanks. 

Westin

Some of both of that. Plus some over egging by the media and amazing camera trickery by some social media posters…(which are then used by the mainstream media).

Some airlines seem to be impacted more than others at the moment. TUI ex MAN/BHX, EasyJet ex LGW/BRS and BA ex LHR.

Which airline and airport are you flying from?  Does your airline offer more than one daily flight to your arrival airport?

TELLIT01

The underlying problem is lack of staff.  Whether any or all of the problems will be resolved or at least reduced by mid July is anybody's guess.

Yazmina

Westin said:

Which airline and airport are you flying from?  Does your airline offer more than one daily flight to your arrival airport?

BA from LHR. I guess it might be prudent to book an early flight, a day earlier than originally planned. It'll cost me more, but at least I'll get there. 

Alan_Bowen

BA is cancelling a lot of flights due to a lack of staff but these are being notified well in advance. They will allow you to swap to another flight if available, unlike TUI and Easyjet who are the main culprits at the moment and who seem to think it is acceptable to allow people to queue for hours, board planes and sit for more time before deciding it is not going to fly. TUI to their slight credit confirms that everyone is entitled to compensation and usually a £200 voucher but Easyjet are attempting to claim ATC delays as the reason to avoid paying compensation. Of course, the majority of all flights are operating but with delays as everyone has to face the same security queues at the airport

NoodleDoodleMan

I may be wrong, however it appears the problems experienced by TUI are largely down to airport employed staff shortages at the larger airports.

TUI don't employ the check in desk or the security staff.

We flew from Glasgow recently on a TUI package and there were no delays - same day as large numbers of football fans were travelling to Seville.

Westin

Yazmina said:

Westin said:

Which airline and airport are you flying from?  Does your airline offer more than one daily flight to your arrival airport?

BA from LHR. I guess it might be prudent to book an early flight, a day earlier than originally planned. It'll cost me more, but at least I'll get there. 

If you are on a route with more than one frequency a day, they 'may' consolidate flying if the current situation continues.  BA seem however to be prioritising long haul and flights with perhaps just one daily service, or a route not served by one of their OneWorld alliance partners. 

MSE_Laura_F

In case it's useful, MSE recently published this news story:
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2022/05/flight-cancelled-delayed-tui-easyjet/

TheLastMongoose

We've just had our holiday cancelled for Wednesday but went in to TUI shop and rebooked the same holiday to go the day before instead. I would suggest if you get cancelled and still want to take the risk of going away at the moment just look at what is available as soon as you get your cancellation email and be ready to rebook quickly.

sammynunes

Ultimately it is the fault of the people for not fighting against the travel restrictions which shouldn't have been in place. The UK had far harsher and far longer lasting travel restrictions than most of Europe.

Also, too many people bought into the idea that stepping on a aeroplane was a death sentence and decided to holiday in the over-crowded UK instead. Holiday and flights prices in 2020/2021 were at a historic low but people generally over-estimated the risks and finished the decimation that the government started on the travel industry.

We had a couple of great years travelling through the deserted airports of Europe to flights which cost a fraction of the norm. Staying in hotels which were a quarter of normal prices was great. Imagine enjoying places like Rome and Venice with only 5% of the usual crowds.....our pictures of the Roman Forum have less people in them on a sunny July day than the pictures in the exhibit which were taken at the dawn of photography. We weren't ever scared and those queuing at the airports should have been the same....after all if it was safe in 2021 why is it safe now?

bagand96

NoodleDoodleMan said:

I may be wrong, however it appears the problems experienced by TUI are largely down to airport employed staff shortages at the larger airports.

TUI don't employ the check in desk or the security staff.

We flew from Glasgow recently on a TUI package and there were no delays - same day as large numbers of football fans were travelling to Seville.

The airport don't employ the check-in or other ground handling staff (baggage handlers, tug drivers, gate staff etc).  These are the responsibility of the airline, and are employed by ground handling agents which are contracted by the airline (i.e. TUI generally use Swissport).   Take for example Jet2 who "self-handle" at many of their larger bases, meaning the ground handling and passenger services/check-in is done in-house by Jet2 staff.  This is a strategy that seems to have paid dividends as they have far more control, and seem to be having less problems than their competitors.

Security staff are the responsibility of the airports - either employed directly or contracted out to a provider.  Anecdotally it seems the situation with security staff is slowly improving at many airports.

It's a multitude of different problems that have conspired together all at the same time. Going back to TUI it appears they have a shortage of actual aircraft, not helped by a run of unforeseen technical issues and leased aircraft problems.

Much of the industry laid staff off during the pandemic on the assumption they'd all come running back when the time came.  That is something that hasn't happened - many found alternative jobs often for more money and definitely with more sociable hours and have decided not to return to aviation.