JUBILEE BREAK CARNAGE FEAR

Snaking queues at airports Drivers in road jam warning

TRAVELLERS faced further misery as the Platinum Jubilee long weekend kicked off yesterday.

Airports were worst hit again, with long queues at Bristol and Manchester.

The aviation industry is suffering from staff shortages after letting thousands of people go in the pandemic.

They claim they are now struggling to recruit replacements quickly due to the stringent security checks needed.

Some 10,794 flights were scheduled to depart from UK airports between yesterday and Sunday, but passengers will be wary of further disruption.

At Gatwick airport, Wizz Air passengers claimed they were stuck in 10-hour queues and were told to get a refreshment voucher by staff – only to find there was no one at the airline’s desk.

Eurostar services were also hit by two-hour delays following reports of a person being hit by a train.

An estimated 19 million motorists are predicted to take to the roads at some point over the long Platinum Jubilee weekend, an AA survey found.

It warned drivers to prepare for delays around supermarkets and other shopcentres. Andy Marchant, traffic expert at location technology firm Tomtom, warned motorists to expect “high levels of congestion” on roads, and advised travelling before noon or after 8pm to avoid the worst of the queues.

City of London Police warned of road closures from last night until this afternoon due to the royals attending a service at St Paul’s Cathedral.

Road closures are expected on Sunday after a snap poll of a dozen councils by the Local Government Association showed they had approved more than 1,000 street parties across the nation. Earlier this week Transport Secretary Grant Shapps warned aviation industry leaders they must “do their bit” to resolve problems.

But yesterday Andy Prendergast, national secretary of the GMB union, said it was “disingenuous” for the Transport Secretary to speak out about chaotic scenes at airports”.

He said: “This... was a foreseeable problem, it was one we warned about at the point at which the mass redundancies were made.

“We asked the Government to look at the aviation industry as a special case and they refused.

“For Grant Shapps to come out as he has in the last 24 hours is a little bit disingenping uous considering these problems have been on the radar for a long time.”

More than 30,000 staff have been laid off by UK airlines in the past two years.

Half-term is the industry’s first major test since Covid-19 travel restrictions were lifted in March.

There are fears that the industry will not be able to cope with the resurgence in demand in July and August.

The Department for Transport and aviation industry have set up a group to discuss mitigating travel issues.

Privately, bosses have questioned why the likes of chefs and ballet dancers are entitled to a skilled worker visa, while aviation employees are not.

Ian Costigan, managing director of Manchester Airport, said: “Since the turn of the year, we have worked to recruit the people we need to support the recovery of our operation.”

The airport has hired 340 people this year, after doing 500 security checks.

The situation at Heathrow has eased and a spokesman said: “With most holidaymakers now safely away, terminals are quieter than at the start of the week.”

We warned about this problem when airports made mass redundancies ANDY PRENDERGAST NATIONAL SECRETARY OF GMB UNION