Picture the scene. You're heading off on the vacation you've dreamed of since early 2020. Your bags are packed, you get to the airport with plenty of time -- only to find lines so long that you end up missing your longed-for flight. That was the situation for over 1,000 travelers at Dublin Airport last week. The situation was so chaotic that the government summoned the airport CEO to come up with a plan for the rest of the summer, and the airport has pledged to pay passengers' "out of pocket expenses" for missed flights. It's not just Dublin. Netherlands flag carrier KLM stopped selling tickets for four days last week, following chaos at its base, Schiphol, throughout April and May. KLM also offered existing passengers the chance to rebook, if they didn't want to deal with long lines at the airport. Meanwhile, UK airports including Manchester, Heathrow and Gatwick are making daily headlines for lines snaking out of buildings, missing bags and hundreds of canceled flights, particularly by British Airways, EasyJet and Tui. Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary even told TV channel ITV this week that the UK should "bring in the army" to help ease the chaos. But it isn't just Europe -- the US is also being badly hit. Delta canceled over 500 flights over the busy Memorial Day weekend, while American Airlines canceled over 100 on the Monday alone. Meanwhile Delta has vowed to cut 100 flights per day this summer in order to "minimize disruptions," while JetBlue is slashing up to 10% of its schedule, and Alaska Airlines is cutting 2%. Summer travel is always a challenge of course, but summer 2022 travel is on another level. Experts say it's a perfect storm: Suddenly we all want to travel, but airlines and airports had laid off staff during the pandemic, and are struggling to recruit replacements. Put simply: they can't handle us.<br/>
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Air traffic control delays in Europe are expected to bring further travel chaos to UK airports over the summer as rail passengers face the prospect of mounting disruption. Europe’s air traffic agency has warned that the number of flights will exceed the capacity of control centres to handle them across large parts of the continent this summer, and urged some countries to review their operations to avoid sudden disruption. The warning comes after British holidaymakers have faced more than a week of flight cancellations and delays as the aviation industry, hit by staff shortages, struggled to cope with a sharp rise in demand. Rail passengers are also braced for disruption this summer with the RMT rail union set to meet on Tuesday to discuss calling a nationwide strike after their members at more than a dozen train operators and infrastructure manager Network Rail backed industrial action in a ballot last month. But it was air passengers who faced most of the problems over the weekend, which included more than 150 flight cancellations at London’s Gatwick airport. The airport said 89 flights were cancelled on Saturday and a further 82 on Sunday, in part caused by air traffic control restrictions after poor weather across parts of Europe, which had compounded the industry-wide staffing problems. EasyJet, Gatwick’s largest operator, cancelled 80 flights on Sunday, blaming “the ongoing challenging operating environment”. Heathrow airport has asked airlines to cut passenger numbers at certain times of the day over the summer to ease queues in terminal buildings at check-in. The airport said it engaged with airlines “well in advance” to allow them to re-time or cancel some flights to “smooth the peaks” at check-in. Meanwhile, the European air traffic control agency Eurocontrol warned in an update covering the six weeks to mid-July that some of the continent’s control centres would struggle to handle all the flights scheduled over that period.<br/>
British transport minister Grant Shapps said on Sunday the government would work hard with the aviation industry to avoid a repeat of the chaos at airports last week as passengers faced lengthy delays and cancellations of hundreds of flights. Airports across Europe have struggled to cope with a post-pandemic rebound in demand, but British airports have been particularly hit by major disruption over the past week. Schools were on a half-term break and the country also had a long public holiday weekend to mark Queen Elizabeth's 70 years on the throne. Shapps, who said earlier this week airlines should stop selling tickets for flights they could not staff, said the industry had to sort out the problem. read more "The industry itself needs to solve it," he told BBC TV. "The government doesn't run airports, it doesn't run the airlines. The industry needs to do that." Airlines had hoped for a bumper summer for passengers after two years of COVID-19 travel restrictions.<br/>
Flights to and from London Luton Airport have been disrupted after a power cut, with some flights diverted to other airports. The airport said on Sunday the power cut had caused a temporary loss of navigational aids. A number of arrivals and departures were delayed, with passengers urged to check with their airline for details. Engineers had resolved the issue on Sunday morning, with some "knock-on disruption" likely, the airport said. It is understood a number of flights were redirected to other airports, including Gatwick, Doncaster and Liverpool.<br/>
A visit to Serbia by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on 6-7 June has been cancelled because three of Serbia's neighbours refuse to let his plane use their airspace. EU member Bulgaria imposed the flight ban, along with North Macedonia and Montenegro - countries hoping, like Serbia, to join the EU. Russia's foreign ministry confirmed the cancellation. Russia's invasion of Ukraine triggered an EU airspace ban. Serbia remains friendly with Russia. Serbia has not joined the EU's wide-ranging sanctions against Russia. The EU and UK imposed a blanket flight ban on Russian planes - including the private jets of oligarchs - days after the 24 February invasion. Like many other European countries, Serbia relies heavily on Russian gas. Lavrov was to have had talks in Belgrade with President Aleksandar Vucic. The Kremlin strongly backs Serbia's refusal to recognise Kosovo's independence. Russia was angered by the Nato bombing campaign against Serbia in 1999 during the Kosovo war.<br/>
South Korea’s main air gateway Incheon Airport will be open around the clock without any flight restrictions from Wednesday. The Transport Ministry announced on Friday that it will fully resume the country’s international flight operation from next Wednesday. Accordingly, the maximum number of flights landing at Incheon per hour will be allowed back to 40, doubled from the current flight cap of 20 placed since April 2020 for border control amid the coronavirus pandemic. The night-curfew from 8pm to 5am will also be removed to allow the airport to run 24 hours. The ministry is expanding international flight schedules faster than its initial plan to meet the surging inbound and outbound travel demand. Many countries around the world including Korea are reopening borders ahead of summer holidays. It previously planned to restore the country’s international flight operation to half the normal level by the end of this year. However, it is now allowing airlines to add more flights per demand without any limit. The country is expanding weekly international flight operations by 230 flights in June, 130 more than planned earlier.<br/>
The Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT) has ordered airlines and airports to make urgent adjustments after seeing long queues for flights at Suvarnabhumi airport. A passenger on a Thai Airways International (THAI) flight departing from Suvarnabhumi posted a video online on Friday depicting a lengthy queue for check-in, claiming some people had to wait over three hours to board while others missed their flights entirely.<br/>The CAAT acknowledged the situation but indicated that no passengers missed their flights. According to the authority, the situation was resolved by about 10am on Friday. The CAAT said THAI executives were on the scene attempting to help ease the congestion, attributed to the long weekend and a larger than usual number of travellers. THAI executives admitted the long lines were a result of insufficient staff, but assured more personnel are being added now that the country is reopening, and more travel is expected. The CAAT said it was coordinating with airlines and airport administrators to better serve passengers, asking them to consider serving those nearing their departure time first and to make other needed preparations to avoid overcrowding.<br/>
Supply-chain snags led Boeing to recently pause 737 MAX production for about 10 days, people familiar with the matter said, complicating the plane maker's ability to satisfy airlines' demand for new aircraft. Boeing's problems with delivering new narrow-body jets have frustrated customers such as Ryanair Holdings PLC as carriers seek to capitalize on surging air travel demand, and hindered the plane maker's efforts to generate cash to pay down debt. Boeing is expected to burn through around $3.6b in cash during the first half of 2022, according to analysts' estimates, though the company forecasts it can have positive cash flow for the year. That outlook hinges in large part on the number of MAX deliveries and the resumption of 787 Dreamliner deliveries. Boeing's recent 737 production pause occurred in May, people familiar with the matter said. Work inside the factory didn't halt during the slowdown, one of these people said. CEO David Calhoun said supply constraints have kept Boeing from increasing production and delivering more 737s. "It's a relatively hot market," he said at an investor event Friday. "Right now, demand is significantly better than supply."<br/>