All Flights Cancelled From UK Airports Today

Travellers in the UK are facing major disruption after flights continue to get cancelled, particularly easyJet and British Airways, which comes as a result of staff shortage caused by the high and increasing number of coronavirus cases. Today on Wednesday the 6^th of April, British Airways cancelled a total of 78 flights schedule to take off or land at Heathrow Airport in London; easyJet cancelled at least 30 flights scheduled to take off or arrive at Gatwick Airport, also in London.

In the past weekend on Saturday the 2^nd and Sunday the 3^rd of April, easyJet cancelled at least 222 flights, followed by a further 62 cancellations on Monday. A spokesperson for the airline has 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 sickness.” The airline attempted to limit the effect on passengers by focusing cancellations on routes with multiple daily flights, according to the spokesperson, who added that the number of cancellations “represents a small proportion” of the total of 1,645 planned for Monday. 

Many travellers are stuck either waiting to go on holiday, or they are waiting to come home, being stuck abroad. The airlines are suffering from major staff shortages due to the high number of coronavirus cases “which have led to scores of flights being grounded”. Currently, it seems that the coronavirus is “surging across Europe with rates reaching levels last seen at the peak of the Omicron wave, resulting in an increase in employee sickness and understaffing”. 

The British Airways cancelled at least 115 flights going to and from Heathrow Airport on Monday; this total includes many “flights axed due to the airline’s recent decision to reduce its schedule until the end of May due to rising coronavirus cases”. Previously, on the 30^th of March, the airline already suffered “chaos” when flights were cancelled due to an “IT meltdown”.