Airport chaos as baggage ‘abandoned’ and passengers ‘forced to sleep on floor’
Airport mayhem gripped terminals once more on Sunday as pictures emerged of shoppers pressured to sleep on flooring, surrounded by snaking passenger queues and mountains of deserted baggage.
Britons have been warned to brace for a summer season of “massive disruption” after British Airways floor workers voted in favour of strike motion on the service’s Heathrow hub.
But regardless of warnings of a looming disaster, pictures taken on Sunday in at UK airports seem to point out the nation’s journey hubs already within the eye of the storm.
Airport employees stand subsequent to traces of passenger baggage organized exterior Terminal 2 at Heathrow Airport
(REUTERS)
A passenger rests earlier than her flight at Manchester Airport Terminal 3
(Ioannis Alexopoulos/LNP)
The pictures confirmed piles of luggage cordoned off by floor workers at Heathrow terminal 2, and passengers being pressured to sleep on the ground of Manchester Airport.
More pictures in The Sun confirmed folks making an attempt to sleep the ground at London’s Stansted airport with their baggage in tow.
Complaints concerning monumental queues at each airports have been flooding Twitter, with one consumer describing the scenes on the former as “chaotic”.
The incoming strike motion will contain an estimated 700 employees, which the GMB Union mentioned was “likely to be during the peak summer holiday period”.
“Holidaymakers face massive disruption thanks to the pig-headedness of British Airways,” it mentioned.
Meanwhile, No 10 mentioned additional strikes will “only add to the misery being faced by passengers at airports”. A spokesman promised “to look at what contingency measures BA could put in place” to get across the motion.
Passengers queue for check-in desks at Heathrow airport’s Terminal 5 in London
(REUTERS)
People face travelling disruption and lengthy queues at airports amid the trade’s ongoing staffing disaster
(AP)
The present airport chaos, which has seen flight delays and cancellations, is “completely to do with Brexit”, the boss of the Ryanair airline mentioned earlier this week.
Michael O’Leary mentioned Brexit has been an “abject failure” and claimed labour shortages have been behind the disruption at UK airports – including: “This government couldn’t run a sweet shop.”
It got here in response to remarks made by transport secretary Grant Shapps, who denied Brexit was guilty for ongoing journey woes, as a substitute accusing airways of “seriously overselling” flights for the reason that Covid pandemic.
Asked concerning the minister’s feedback, the outspoken Ryanair chief government advised Sky News: “It’s completely to do with Brexit. A lot of these pinch points would be solved very quickly if we could bring in European workers.
“We are hide-bound and hamstrung by a government so desperate to show Brexit has been a success, when it’s been an abject failure. It won’t allow us to bring in EU workers to do these jobs.”
People queue at Manchester Airport, as Tui introduced a “small number” of flight cancellations and delays in a blow to journey plans firstly of the half-term brea
(PA)
Passengers queue for safety screening within the departures space of Terminal 2 at Manchester Airport
(REUTERS)
He added: “If we can’t attract people to do those jobs, like baggage handling like security at the airports we’re going to have to bring in workers from Ireland or the continent to do them – and Brexit is one of the big bugbears in the system.”
Mr O’Leary warned that delays and cancellations will proceed “right throughout the summer” as airports undergo amid workers shortages.
He pointed to an absence of workers throughout air site visitors management, baggage dealing with and safety.
The airline boss mentioned passengers ought to brace for a “less than satisfactory experience”, with flight delays resulting from final throughout the height season and a few airways cancelling between 5 per cent and 10 per cent of flights.
