The UK’s airports have been blighted by travel chaos for months now. People have faced hours-long queues, endless flight delays and thousands of tourists have even been left stranded overseas. So it comes as no surprise that in a bid to tackle these problems, one of the country’s busiest airports should announce it is cutting flight numbers throughout the summer.
Gatwick Airport is reducing the number of daily flights to 825 in July and 850 in August, down from the usual 900. A spokesperson said the airport had taken the decision to help passengers ‘experience a more reliable and better standard of service’, although those with cancelled flights might not agree.
The government and travel regulators had demanded that airports revamp their timetables so they were ‘deliverable’. It’s thought that by preemptively cancelling flights, there will be fewer last-minute delays and cancellations due to staff shortages.
EasyJet, one of the main airlines that uses the airport, released a statement saying that it ‘expected to be able to re-accommodate the majority of customers should their flight be affected by the cap’. As for the lack of staff, Gatwick claims to have employed 400 people to help ease the summer rush. The industry made a large number of people redundant during the pandemic, and has failed to rehire to meet increasing passenger demand. Here’s hoping that changes sometime soon, eh?
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