When will airports / flying get back to normal?

[Helpyou]

I love travel, I really do. I used to fly about twice a year short haul.

But the stress of my most recent trip is enough to put me off for a lifetime. I feel for everyone with cancelled trips, cancelled visits to family / weddings / hens / stags etc... delays with children, delays hungover, not knowing if you'll make it home in time for work. It's a shambles. The staff on board are feeling the pressure too. When is it going to get back to normal?

(Before anyone says, I know there are bigger worries in the world but the 2 aren't mutually exclusive and right now I'm just wondering about the travel industry and whether these big airlines will even survive!)

OnthePiste the summer schedule starts at the end of March/start of April, coinciding with British Summer time for air travel in the UK. Peak demand is obviously in the school hols. Covid travel restrictions being lifted/relaxed worldwide have created increased demand right now.

My nearest airport is Manchester. It seems to have been different issues for different people. One friend took hours to get through security, one had her flight delayed 3 hours as they were waiting for someone to put luggage onto the flight. These suggest shortage at the airport. However for us we recently flew with easyJet and the queue for check in was ridiculous and I don't see how it will improve. They have over 20 flights going within the space of 1-2 hours with everyone in the same queue and only self service machines. About 20 machines however more people didn't Unless their plan is to also start staffing desks it's always going to be like that 🤷‍♀️

Definitely a staffing issue.
Went Bristol to Venice last month, mid week term time but there were already reports of nassive early morning queues. I think we were lucky as we had a slightly later flight missing all the early morning rush. We had a very smooth experience in both directions, though it was extremely busy at Bristol airport and at the parking options.

In 10 days we are due to travel from Bristol to Lisbon for a longer trip. I'm a bit concerned as the Lisbon flight this week was one of the Easyjet cancellations. Keeping fingers crossed our flight operates and the current chaos improves after the half term crush subsides, especially as we have luggage this time.

It's not fiction though is it? I literally experienced.

Exactly, it's a bit of a lottery whether you experience it or not, but it's definitely happening. It might also be over-hyped by the media but these people saying they had a 6 hour delay / 2 hour security queue / couldn't get through at bag drop, they aren't lying.

I'm personally avoiding UK airports right now if at all possible. I transit a lot through London and I'm rescheduling some trips through other European countries as a precaution. Chances are I'd be fine - but I don't want to risk it.

Already in February (not term time) I had to wait 1h 15 for checked luggage to come out at Heathrow T5. It was a small plane, not full, and we parked two gates away from the the baggage hall. It was awful.

What airport is this?

Thanks for all the input! I'm not talking about the queuing etc.. its all the cancelled flights and so on. Its great that many of you haven't noticed any difference but it is real and it is stressful. I flew Easter too and it was fine, I'm talking about the last couple of weeks. It's really awful.

Been flying in school holidays since October and it's been fine.

Worst queues were Madeira in and out and more to to with Covid insanitychecks than anything else.

TBF we never go between May and October because it's too hot, too expensive and too crowded but I'm not anticipating problems next time we go in October half term.

I recently (in the last 2 weeks) flew to/from Heathrow T3 and it was nothing like what seems to be happening at other airports. On the way out, had to queue for maybe an hour at security - which is annoying but no more than a normal peak season queue. Half of the wait was caused by morons not taking their liquids and laptops out of their bags until they had put them in the trays. On the way back, no queue at all at security.

Meant to say no queue at passport control on the way back, not security. There wasn’t a queue at security either but that’s only relevant if you’re going to the same place as me! My flight back was also slightly delayed but only due to an issue with the plane. There didn’t seem to be major cancellations or delays that I noticed when waiting in the airport in either direction.

No it doesn't, I worked for Thomson/Tui for many years and their full summer programme starts at the beginning of May. Absolutely nothing to do with the clocks changing!

Well it certainly can..

I know the definitions are a bit blurred these days but for want of a better description the UK scheduled/non-charter airlines (e.g. BA) always used to switch from winter to summer or vice versa the same night the UK clocks changed, and AFAIK that still applies...

I guess it would make sense for operators whose passenger numbers are more heavily tied into domestic holidays, such as Thomson/TUI to do it differently.

Doncaster

We flew from Manchester with easyJet on Wednesday. Got through check in and security very quickly, terminal was very busy but a couple of the restaurants were closed. Flight was delayed 90 mins then we sat on the tarmac for an hour. Due to fly back today at three and it’s already showing a delay. We should have flown out last Saturday but easyJet cancelled that, put us on a flight the day before then cancelled that. Agree with the cheap flights comments, we will go with the bigger carriers next
time we fly.

Thing is the weather is SO crap here and a guessing game. So people want to escape. I have the heating on here!

Flew from Germany this week to UK. Everything was okay except getting through passport control at the airport. Following Brexit, we were now non-EU, and the queue was massive. Took 2 hours to get through. Only one passport point open. People who had not prepared for this were trying to queue jump as otherwise they'd have missed their flights. This resulted in a near lynching of those who were ducking under the barrier to try and circumvent the very long line of people waiting to show their passports. Children and adults both in tears. It suddenly became very apparent how very thin the line of civility is when people's patience is tested; when they're drained, thirsty and hungry, and when staffing levels are so low to cope with the demand.

No delays or cancellations where I've just flown from. It's not all airports.

This.

I hope sooner rather than later. We had a nightmare in the Easter holidays too so didn’t travel to our European house in May half term to avoid a repeat. We will drive this summer through the Eurotunnel. However, to be honest, during Covid times the Eurotunnel was a bit of a nightmare too in the holidays in terms of delays.
Before Easter, BA lost our bags and never even loaded most of the passenger bags because there was no staff to load it. We then didn’t have any of our stuff for 3 days missing out on all the booked activities. Heathrow was packed too, understaffed, not enough restaurants open, the flight was delayed etc- it would have been easier to just drive. Return flight though was a breeze.
My point being this was a problem in the Easter hols for some people too.

It is all relative too - for those of us who travelled during the pandemic (when allowed), the multiple tests on each end, the passenger locator forms etc. were a massive headache and meant hours of extra paperwork on either end for me with a family of 6 so I guess I will take a few hours sitting in an airport over that (due to high volume of travellers/less staff).

Passport control being more stringent and asking lots of questions doesn’t help queues either, but post Brexit there isn’t really a way around this. Even if they open all the booths and have plenty of staff, it is slower and we need tourists back into the UK too. London seems to be full of them again at the moment.

IIrc

Stansted are managed by Manchester Airport and they couldn't manage their way out of a wet paper bag, won't bore you with the details, but 2019 at Stansted was grim, we paid for valet parking and were the last people to get it, everyone else was sent to the long stay and one guy barely made the flight.

So no change there then.

Fewer people would fly because fewer people could afford to fly. And it all averages out anyway. We flew to Salzburg in February 2020. Family of 4. Half term week, flights (easyjet) £3000. Week either side £300 (we opted to take them out of school).
The 'realistic' price falls somewhere in the middle of those.

This half term chaos was compounded by EJ cancelling most of their flights. We flew at Easter and had been prepared for delays based on the media. We flew from Gatwick with AirBaltic. It was very busy in the Departure lounge, but everything else was pretty typical.

I've seen that Alicante to Doncaster have cancelled all flights for certain airline for June I think. So it is affecting them too.

I've seen that Alicante to Doncaster have cancelled all flights for certain airline for June I think. So it is affecting them too.

www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-61688988

From that report it looks like fingers are being pointed over the ability over those responsible for ground handling to comply with service level agreements and the airline involved has pulled the plug..

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service-level_agreement

Flew to Amsterdam for a few days from Scotland 2 weeks ago. No delays in Scotland. Busy coming back at Schiphol but we were through passport control and security in about 25-30 minutes.

It's not busy everywhere. You have to remember that travel has been totally decimated by covid for 2 whole years, many staff who were furloughed or laid off have gone and found jobs elsewhere.