Mayhem predicted for travel this summer

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/>