Fresh misery for travellers as strikes add to airport delays
Further queue warnings as British Airways cabin crew and airport staff in Barcelona stage walkouts
HOLIDAYMAKERS are braced for the worst delays at airports yet with a fresh wave of industrial action set to exacerbate problems caused by new passport checks.
Border staff at Barcelona airport will carry out a series of hour-long strikes today following a breakdown of talks on Friday night.
Their decision threatens queuing misery for hundreds of British passengers travelling to the country.
Passengers have faced severe delays while travelling back from popular European destinations following the introduction of more stringent passport checks. Some have reported having to wait for up to four hours at passport control, with reports of some flights leaving half-empty as a result.
Elsewhere, British Airways cabin crew have said they will continue a walkout due to last most of August.
Workers at Barcelona’s El Prat airport for private security company Eulen are demanding better conditions and more staff, saying they work up to 16 hours a day.
They are also threatening to strike on Monday as part of a regular pattern of disruption if their demands are not met. Last week, a recording emerged appearing to show the chairman of the strike committee saying that queues were crucial to her workers’ negotiating position. Their walkouts have so far reportedly caused queues lasting up to eight hours.
British travellers, 600,000 of whom visit Barcelona each year, were yesterday advised by their airlines to arrive at Barcelona airport at least three hours before the scheduled time of take-off.
British Airways sent text messages to customers warning them of long delays and promised to re-book passengers who miss their flights because of the queues.
One passenger, Paul Steenkamp, said queues at Barcelona’s El Prat were “massive”. He said at least three hours were required to get through security checks, adding: “Chaos is an understatement.”
More than 1,000 travellers have missed flights as a result of the industrial action, while the delays caused as a result of new EU regulations have also led to delays at other airports popular with British holidaymakers such as Malaga and Palma. The new detailed checks, which were introduced in May, apply to people travelling to and from the UK because Britain is not a member of the open-border Schengen Area.
They were introduced in part due to pressure applied by Theresa May while she was Home Secretary. But passengers have accused European airports of not supplying enough staff to carry out the enhanced checks.
Airlines UK, the industry body for UK-registered carriers, has demanded that the Government puts pressure on countries to try to speed up the checks.
Meanwhile, one Conservative minister told The Sunday Telegraph the EU may be “just trying to give us a warning that this is something that is in store for us after Brexit”. But Mina Andreeva, European Commission spokesman, said there was a “price to be paid” for security.
At a press briefing in Brussels, she said: “We understand there are concerns about EU rules that might lead to longer waiting periods. But this is very clearly about the security of our citizens and it is member states that have called for these rules, unanimously, in the European Council in October 2015.”
The delays have also caused anger as experts said passengers who miss their flights will not be entitled to claim compensation because the delays are not the fault of the airlines.
The industrial action by British Airways cabin crew was supposed to last from the beginning of the month to August 15.
However it was announced last week a fresh walkout will begin a day later and run to Aug 30, affecting the bank holiday weekend.
The disruption for air passengers comes as customers using London’s Waterloo Station endured their first day of a planned three weeks of altered services due to major engineering works that have closed 10 platforms. The pared-down service was yesterday compounded by a signal failure.
The work [on Waterloo station], which will get Waterloo ready for longer trains and provide space for 30 per cent more passengers during the busiest times of the day, will mean there will be no services to and from a number of stations in south-west London.
Meanwhile, drivers using the M5 in Gloucestershire endured severe delays after a lorry involved in a crash spilt 24 tons of flour and 200 litres of diesel on to the carriageway.
Chaos also reigned on the M6, where there was a 15-mile tailback after a serious crash. One man injured in the crash was airlifted to hospital.
‘EU is just trying to give us a warning that this is something that is in store for us after Brexit’