easyJet cancels over 200 flights due to COVID staff absences
easyJet has cancelled more than 200 flights over this past weekend, with dozens grounded this morning too.
The latest reports show that the budget airline company axed least 222 trips since Friday, and blamed the mass cancellations and problems it was experiencing on high levels of sickness among employees caused by COVID, leaving some passengers stranded in at the UK’s biggest airports.
easyJet said it had made efforts to combat the shortages by “rostering” standby crew on the weekend – but it was unfortunately forced to make “additional cancellations” on Sunday and Monday.
A total of 62 flights scheduled for today have been cancelled, and the vast majority of these cancellations were announced at short notice on Saturday.
Some passengers said they were stranded abroad with no explanation or alternatives offered by the airline.
Addressing the mass cancellations, a spokesperson for easyJet 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.
“We have taken action to mitigate this through the rostering of additional standby crew this weekend.
“However, with the current levels of sickness, we have also decided to make some cancellations in advance which were focused on consolidating flights where we have multiple frequencies so customers have more options to rebook their travel, often on the same day.
Read more: The long queues at Manchester Airport could continue ‘for weeks’, bosses say
“Unfortunately it has been necessary to make some additional cancellations for today (Sunday) and tomorrow (Monday).
“We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause to customers on affected flights.”
These easyJet cancellations come after travel chaos hit some of the country’s biggest airports last week and again over the weekend, with passengers at Manchester Airports stuck in long queues waiting to check in, and at security and e-gates too.
Featured Image – easyJet