Travellers told to arrive at UK airports no more than three hours before flights

Travellers trying to get away from the UK over the Jubilee bank holiday weekend have been advised to arrive no more than three hours before their flights as snaking queues add to the chaos at short-staffed airports. Tui and Ryanair are among airlines and holiday companies advising customers to arrive at UK airports three hours before their flights to allow time to check in, rather than the usual two-hour slot. But customers arriving six or seven hours before flights were causing more problems, one travel industry executive said. “The ecosystem works when people come when they are intended to come and join the queue.” Tui said that since the disruption earlier in the week — a result of a lack of airport staff to service flights amid soaring demand — schedules had stabilised and it expected to send 27,000 people on holiday on Friday with no further cancellations except six flights out of Manchester airport. The Anglo-German holiday company said on Tuesday that it planned to cancel six flights a day from Manchester until the end of June, as that was where problems with staffing have been most acute. Between Thursday and Sunday, 10,794 flights are expected to depart from the UK, according to the aviation tracker Cirium, with capacity for some 1.9mn passengers. Between May 30 and Thursday morning 207 flights had been cancelled, with Gatwick airport the most badly affected. The issues have been widespread across Europe, industry executives said, with long delays reported at airports including Brussels, Schiphol in Amsterdam and Bratislava.<br/>