EasyJet to cancel over 200 half-term flights causing chaos for family travel plans

The airline has announced about 24 flights a day from London’s Gatwick airport will be cancelled between 28 May and 6 June “to provide reliable services over this busy period”

EasyJet has announced it will be cancelling more than 200 flights this week, with BA and TUI also grounding dozens of services.

EasyJet said about 24 flights a day from London’s Gatwick Airport would be cancelled between 28 May and 6 June in order “to provide reliable services over this busy period”.

The new announcement of cancellations comes after a software failure forced the airline to cancel another 200 flights on Thursday.

BA has also announced that 140 flights due to fly today have been grounded, as part of what it described as “pre-planned” rescheduling.

The airline is reducing its schedule by 10% up to October, in a move that has meant 15% of passengers who were booked in to fly have not arrived at their destination within a day of the original departure so far.

TUI has been frustrating would-be holidaymakers this morning and weekend by cancelling a series of flights, although the exact number is not yet known.

Customers have complained of being bumped off their flights at the last minute and, in the case of one family of ten, being told their plane wasn’t leaving after an 11 hour delay.

The company has been contacted for comment.

EasyJet said the latest cancellations were unrelated to last week’s IT issue, which has since been resolved.

It said a range of issues were having an impact on its operations and contributing to the new half-term cancellations, including air traffic control restrictions, runway works and airport handling delays.

In a statement the airline said: “We are very sorry for the late notice of some of these cancellations and inconvenience caused for customers booked on these flights however we believe this is necessary to provide reliable services over this busy period.

“Customers are being informed from today and provided with the option to rebook their flight or receive a refund and can apply for compensation in line with regulations.”

Holidaymakers were left stranded on Thursday with little to no notice of the disruptions to their travel.

EasyJet initially announced that the flights affected would be those departing between 1pm and 3pm UK time on Thursday, but later said the disruption could last longer.

In an updated statement, the airline said: “easyJet can confirm that the earlier IT systems issues have now been rectified.

“Unfortunately, they resulted in some cancellations earlier today and while we expect to operate most of our remaining flying programme some may still be subject to some disruption in the coming hours.”

Devan Lonsdale, 24, from Durham, was due to travel with eight friends from Manchester Airport for a holiday that had already been cancelled due to Covid.

“We left Newcastle at 6am and got to the airport for 10am as our flight was 1.20pm,” he told PA.

“We were called to the gate at 12.35pm and the gate was due to close at 12.50pm but at 1pm it hadn’t budged.

“People started walking off one by one to be told that the flight was cancelled and no replacement, so we were stuck in Manchester.

“We’ve had to pay for hotel etc in Manchester and are now going to go back home tomorrow – (we) have looked for alternate flights to Prague and other locations for a reasonable price so we could make use of our days off work we have used, but found nothing but flights £500+ with multiple stops.

“Only time will tell what easyJet will say and how much money we will get but we will no doubt lose money overall and a four-day holiday.”

One woman claimed that would-be passengers were told their flight had been cancelled just 10 minutes before they were due to board the plane.

Others have been stuck at some of the UK’s biggest airports, including Gatwick and Stansted.

Both Edinburgh and Luton have seen seven arrivals and seven departures cancelled, while nine flights from Manchester have been affected.

The statement from easyJet added: “We advise customers due to travel with us to continue to check Flight Tracker for the status of their flight before making their way to the airport.

“We apologise for the inconvenience caused and customers can apply for compensation in line with regulations.”

A BA spokesperson said: “It’s been a challenging period for the entire industry and at British Airways we’re completely focused on three priorities: our customers, supporting the biggest recruitment drive in our history and increasing our operational resilience.

“We took action to reduce our schedule to help provide certainty for our customers and are giving them maximum flexibility to either rebook with us or another airline as close to their original departure time as possible, or to receive a full refund.”

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