The airline has blamed cancellations for staff shortages due to COVID-19, with at least 222 flights canceled since Friday. He said he had made efforts to combat the shortages by “ranking” the waiting crew at the weekend, but was forced to make “additional cancellations” on Sunday and Monday. More than 60 flights were canceled on Monday Sixty-two flights were postponed to Monday, with most to be announced shortly on Saturday. An easyJet spokesman said: “As a result of the current high rates of COVID infections across Europe, like all businesses, easyJet is experiencing higher-than-usual levels of employee illness. First trip abroad after COVID. Good… @ easyJet cancels flight with five hours notice. Result 10 hours delay and 2:00 am arrival at our hotel Now I was just charged 14 14 for a pint and a G&T at @belfastairport, the gloomiest airport I’ve been to since the year ended. Sigh. pic.twitter.com/v6E0GsAyIP – David Sterling (@ DavidSterling7) March 31, 2022 “We have taken steps to mitigate this by setting up an additional standby crew this weekend, however, with the current levels of illness, we have also decided to make some cancellations in advance, which have focused on consolidating multi-frequency flights so that Customers have more options to re-book their trip, often on the same day. “Unfortunately, some additional cancellations had to be made for today (Sunday) and tomorrow (Monday). We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause to customers of affected flights.” The cancellations come after the travel chaos that hit some of Britain’s largest airports over the weekend, with passengers at Heathrow and Manchester airports stranded in long queues waiting to check in. “Cancellation with less than 10 hours notice” Some easyJet passengers said they were excluded from abroad without any explanation or alternatives offered by the airline. Simon Rudkins, 50, said he was about to return to the UK from a ski trip to the Alps with his family when the airline contacted him with less than 10 hours notice that their flight had been canceled. He said his 85-year-old mother, who suffers from dementia, had come with them on the return trip. “He’s very confused and does not need stress,” said Mr Rudkins. The independent landscape gardener said he had to call clients waiting for him on Monday to explain the delay and would lose money on the work. “We called easyJet asking for alternatives. They basically told us ‘no, there is nothing, there are no flights at all.’ The best you can do is fly tomorrow. “I probably would not go near easyJet (again).”
