London was hit Monday by a subway strike on top of train and flight delays and cancellations that caused travel chaos in Britain following four-day Platinum Jubilee weekend.
Several underground stations were closed after the RMT union called a 24-hour strike in the British capital, prompting authorities to urge commuters to avoid the Tube until Tuesday morning.
Thousands of travellers struggled to return home after the celebration of Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee as hundreds of flights were cancelled, according to UK media.
“Unfortunately, due to the ongoing challenging operating environment around 37 flights have been cancelled today (Monday) ahead of customers arriving at the airport,” EasyJet said in a statement.
A British Airways spokesman said the company’s flight cancellations were “pre-planned” and that customers were notified well ahead of time.
“In order to help provide customers with more certainty in the months to come, we took the decision a while back to reduce our schedule by 10 percent (around 8 000 round trips) until the end of October as a result of resource challenges,” he said.
Deputy prime minister Dominic Raab accused airlines last week of a “lack of preparation” in the run-up to the holiday surge following the removal of Covid pandemic restrictions.
The aviation industry has a shortage of staff after thousands were laid off during the pandemic, which paralysed the sector for months.
It is now struggling to recruit workers while demand is rebounding and summer travel approaches. The sector blames the authorities for not accelerating the vetting process for new airport and airline recruits.
British Airways said it had undertaken the “biggest recruitment drive in our history”.
The airline said the aviation industry had lost more than 145 billion pounds (R2.4 trillion) and an estimated four million jobs since the start of the pandemic, noting that a parliament committee found that the government’s action had been “inconsistent”, with abrupt changes to travel restrictions.
Airlines for Europe, which represents EU airlines, has predicted that the problem would continue “for a good chunk of the summer season”.
The Eurostar train company linking London to Paris and Brussels had warned last week that its services faced “big delays” as passport and security checks in London were “taking longer than usual”.
Eurostar tweeted on Sunday that all of its trains between London and Paris faced heavy delays and cancellations due to a power supply problem near the French capital.
