UK airports apologise after staff shortages continue to cause travel chaos

Gatwick and Manchester airports have issued apologies after staff shortages continue to cause long delays for travellers.

Travellers complained of delays of up to four hours on Tuesday morning, with departure queues and luggage wait times causing frustration.

A spokesman for Gatwick Airport apologised to a user on Twitter who described their experience as “horrible” and “grim”.

The spokesman tweeted: “Hi, we’re really sorry for any delay. We are operating a moving queue system and staff are working hard to process passengers as quickly as possible through Security Search.”

One Twitter user complained of a four-hour queue at the baggage reclaim carousels at Manchester Airport on Tuesday morning.

A spokesman said: “We apologise to any passengers whose experience at Manchester Airport this morning was not how they would like it to be.

“As we continue to recover from the pandemic, we continue to advise customers there may be some times when security queues are longer than usual, which is why we advise people to arrive three hours before their flights.

“On Tuesday morning, while the vast majority of people passed through security in under 30 minutes, waiting times peaked at around one hour in one of our terminals for a brief period of time, and we are sorry for any inconvenience caused.

“By 7am, security queues in all three terminals had improved significantly, and were as low as 15 minutes in the best case.

“We are also aware some passengers reported delays when checking in with their airline, and collecting baggage on their return.

“All parts of the aviation sector are experiencing challenges linked to the rapid recovery from the pandemic and we are working hard with all our partners, including handling agents, airlines and others, to deliver the best possible service we can in the circumstances.”