More air travel chaos looms and UK rail passengers face prospect of disruption
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/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2022-06-06/general/more-air-travel-chaos-looms-and-uk-rail-passengers-face-prospect-of-disruption
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More air travel chaos looms and UK rail passengers face prospect of disruption
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/>
