Calls for automatic airline refunds grow as more flights cancelled – follow live

Passengers have complained of having to wait at airports without being given information or apologies.

Some said they had no access to food or water.

Gatwick Airport said it had designated water fountains in the departure lounge for peope to refill empty bottles.

Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary has suggested the army be drafted into UK airports for three to four month to solve the travel hold-ups.

The airline chief executive told ITV News that “defence personnel with experience of providing security” should be deployed.

He said that at a stroke it would relieve the pressure on airport security.

A Labour MP has blamed the travel disruption on the government.

Louise Haigh had demanded ministers take urgent action. Transport secretary Grant Shapps was too busy saving Boris Johnson’s skin, she claimed.

Dublin Airport officials have said they are confident that passengers will not miss flights this weekend if they arrive at the airport at the recommended time.

The airport made headlines last weekend after long queues stretched outside the airport terminals and over 1,000 people missed their flights.

Dalton Philips, head of the Dublin Airport Authority, told the Oireachtas Transport Authority on Wednesday that these delays happened due to a rostering error.

Mr Philips also conceded that the aviation sector had recovered more quickly than had been anticipated, and that 248 security staff should not have been offered voluntary redundancy last year, during travel restrictions introduced during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Transport Minister Eamon Ryan on Thursday urged passengers to follow the advice from the airport and not to arrive too early for a flight.

A union boss says it is “disingenuous” for the Transport Secretary to speak out about chaotic scenes at Britain’s airports as issues with staffing “have been on the radar for a long time”.

Grant Shapps said on Wednesday the aviation industry must “do their bit” to resolve problems that have led to the disruption.

Andy Prendergast, national secretary of the GMB union, told BBC Radio 4’s World at One: “This unfortunately was a foreseeable problem, it was one we warned about at the point at which the mass redundancies were made.

“We asked the Government to look at the aviation industry as a special case and they refused. And now, quite frankly, for Grant Shapps to come out as he has in the last 24 hours is a little bit disingenuous, considering these problems have been on the radar for a long time.”

The aviation industry is suffering from staff shortages after letting thousands of people go during the coronavirus pandemic.

Eurostar passengers are reporting toilets out of order on a Eurostar service they waited nearly two-and-a-half hours for.

“2hrs 28m estimated delay and 4 toilets out of order. Parents changing babies on the floor,” complained Simon Edmonds on Twitter.

“Train should never have been dispatched like this,” he added.

Eurostar has been experiencing severe delays to its entire network since 9.30am today, when a fatality on the tracks in Northern France first caused disruption to services,

Gatwick Airport’s bars and restaurants have seen a surge of customers as air passengers arrive early for flights or find themselves delayed.

“Check-in and security were pretty stress free – busy but well organised,” reports Chris Shearer, who is at the airport waiting for a delayed easyJet flight to Verona.

“It’s the bars and restaurants that are a joke.”

Mr Shearer sent a video of the queue from Gatwick’s North Terminal Wetherspoons pub, which is currently stretching across the departure lounge.

“People are using the currency exchange as a makeshift standing table… people are drinking in and amongst the communal seating areas,” he says.

Chris and his friends, meanwhile, have decided to skip the queues and improvise with minature wine bottles on the departure lounge steps.

Britain’s biggest budget airline, easyJet, has made another round of flight cancellations for the second day of the Platinum Jubilee holiday.

The Independent has identified some of the grounded flights to and from easyJet’s biggest base, London Gatwick.

The only service of the day to Munich has been cancelled, along with departures to Budapest and Barcelona.

After large numbers of flights were cancelled at very late notice last week, easyJet has cut around 24 departures a day to and from Gatwick.

Affected passengers must be flown to their intended destination on the original day of travel if any seats are available – including on rival airlines.

In addition hotel accommodation must be provded if an overnight stay is required, with commensurate meals.

The final day of the long Platinum Jubilee weekend, on 5 June, is a Sunday – the day of the week which would normally see no service on the new Elizabeth line.

But because of the celebrations, the new railway beneath the centre of London is to open specially between around 8am and 8.30pm.

Trains run every five minutes on a short route between Paddington station and Abbey Wood in southeast London.

The closest station to Buckingham Palace, Bond Street, is not yet open.

The Elizabeth line, also known as the Crossrail project, opened three-and-a-half years behind schedule.

Large crowds of travellers have converged at the main station of Hamburg – apparently taking advantage of the “9-Euro-Ticket”, which allows unlimited travel anywhere in the nation during the entire month of June for a one-off payment equivalent to £7.70.

After a journey of around 30 miles, the pass has paid for itself – meaning all travel for the rest of the month is effectively free. While the €9 ticket cannot be used on the fastest expresses, cross-country journeys are perfectly feasible using “Regional Express” trains.

A journey from Hamburg to Salzburg, just across the Austrian border (but allowed with the ticket) takes 14 or 15 hours.

British traveller Barry Freeman told The Independent: “The first test might be this coming weekend. It’s Whitsun weekend.”