Airport chaos once again gripped UK terminals on Sunday as footage surfaced of customers forced to sleep on floors surrounded by twisting rows of passengers and mountains of abandoned luggage.
Ritons have been warned to brace for a summer of “massive disruption” after British Airways ground staff voted in favor of strikes at the Heathrow airline hub.
But despite warnings of an impending crisis, photos taken at UK airports on Sunday seem to show the country’s travel hubs already in the eye of the storm.
The footage showed piles of bags dropped by ground staff at Heathrow Terminal 2, and passengers forced to sleep on the floor of Manchester Airport.
More images in The sun showed people trying to sleep on the floor at London’s Stansted Airport with their luggage in tow.
Complaints about huge queues at both airports poured into Twitter, with one user describing the scenes on the first as “chaotic”.
The upcoming strike action will involve an estimated 700 workers, which the GMB union says will “probably be during the peak summer holiday period”.
“Vacationers are facing huge disruptions due to British Airways’ stubbornness,” it said.
Meanwhile, Downing Street said further strikes “will only add to the misery faced by passengers at airports”. A spokesman promised “to look into what emergency measures BA could take” to circumvent the action.
The current chaos at the airport, with flight delays and cancellations, is “entirely related to Brexit,” the Ryanair boss said earlier this week.
Michael O’Leary said Brexit has been an “abject failure” and claimed that labor shortages were the root of the disruption at UK airports – adding: “This government cannot run a candy store.”
It came in response to comments from Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, who denied Brexit was the cause of lingering travel problems, instead accusing airlines of “seriously overselling” flights since the Covid pandemic.
Asked about the minister’s comments, the outspoken Ryanair chief said: SkyNews: “It has everything to do with Brexit. Many of these bottlenecks would be solved very quickly if we could bring in European workers.
“We have been wired and paralyzed by a government so desperate to show that Brexit was a success when it was an abject failure. It will not allow us to bring in EU workers to do this work.”
He added: “If we can’t attract people to do those jobs, like baggage handling like airport security, we’re going to have to get workers from Ireland or the continent to do them – and Brexit is one of the big bugbears in the world.” the system.”
Mr O’Leary warned that delays and cancellations will continue “all summer” as airports suffer from staff shortages.
He pointed to a lack of personnel in air traffic control, baggage handling and security.
The airline’s chief said passengers should brace themselves for a “less than satisfactory experience,” with flight delays due to the peak season and some airlines canceling between 5 percent and 10 percent of flights.