Airports face two months of disruption amid staff shortage crisis
Passengers are facing two months of disruption at UK airports as bosses struggle to recruit new staff and covid rips through the workforce.
UK airports have begun a recruitment push to bring in new security officers, but fears are growing that a long 15 week wait period could begin to eat into the summer travel period.
Crew rotas on flights have also been thrown into disarray with staff off sick with Covid.
Manchester Airport, the UK’s third largest airport, has felt the worst of the turbulence, with its managing director resigning on Tuesday and mayor Andy Burnham calling on government to ramp up efforts to bring in new staff.
Burnham wrote to the security and borders minister Damian Hinds calling for the recruitment and clearance of new staff at airports be prioritised.
The mayor said that 220 staff had been recruited by Manchester airport but the security clearance process was taking longer than usual, warning the disruption for passengers was expected to last two months, The Times reported.
British Airways and easyJet have also been forced into a cabin crew hiring spree, amid a sector-wide staff shortage brought on by sickness and an exodus of staff through the pandemic.
Both airlines have cancelled around 70 flights in recent days with a further 15,000 passengers are expected to be affected by cancellations today.
Airports were now urging passengers to arrive early for flights due to the threat of increased queues.
Burnham said he had received assurances from the airport that emergency staff were being drafted in to support at Manchester.
The airport disruption comes as ferry routes to the continent remain in disarray as beleaguered ferry firm P&O looks to restart its services.
In a statement yesterday, P&O said it was looking to restart services “by next week”.