Airline, train and tube chaos mars Britain’s post-Jubilee return
Hundreds of flights were cancelled at airports across the United Kingdom and Europe over the holiday weekend, and London commuters face severe disruptions from a strike starting on Monday (Jun 6), handing Britons a sharp reminder of the country’s domestic woes after four days of celebrating the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.
Dotted among blanket coverage of national festivities to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II’s 70 years on the throne, UK media featured numerous images of lines of frustrated passengers at airports up and down the land. On Friday, the Manchester Evening News even broadcast footage of armed police being called to the city’s airport after tourists were filmed crawling through a baggage carousel barrier in a bid to get their luggage.
London’s Gatwick Airport said 52 departures and 30 arrivals were scrapped on Sunday, many of them operated by EasyJet, which axed 80 flights in total across Europe. North of the capital at Luton, about 3,000 passengers were diverted following a power failure, The Independent reported.
Under pressure from the airline industry to relax immigration rules and step in to ease the logjam, the government pushed back and highlighted three issues. Airlines had cut too many jobs during the pandemic, failed to plan for a surge in passenger numbers and airline operators had oversold too many tickets.
“I think cuts went too deep,” Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said on BBC TV on Sunday, dismissing the notion that Brexit was a significant factor behind job losses in the sector. “We’ll work with the industry very hard between now and the summer to make sure we don’t see a repeat of those scenes.”
Heathrow Airport has demanded airlines reduce the number of passengers flying from its terminals at certain times of the day by a third until Jul 3, The Times reported.
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Travel by sea hasn’t been much better over the weekend, with major congestion in and around the French ports of Dunkirk and Calais adding to the sense of chaos.
On the rail network, passengers at Euston station faced cancellations on Sunday after operator Avanti West Coast said a person was hit by a train, The Independent reported. Scores of stranded passengers were locked in the station and the police was called to maintain order. In northern England and Scotland, the TransPennine Express ran a reduced service because of a strike.
And for anyone planning to go to work in London on Monday, the problems persist.
The RMT union expects 4,000 Tube staff to go on strike, leading to multiple station closures that Transport for London said will affect services until the morning of Jun 7. One bright spot: The walkout won’t affect the new Elizabeth line that connects the west of London to the City and onwards into Essex. BLOOMBERG
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