More than 70 flights cancelled today as Easter chaos continues

MORE flights have been cancelled today as Brits continue to face travel chaos at the airports.

Both British Airways and easyJet have been forced to suspend a number of their flights today, after more than a week of disruption.

More than 70 flights between the two airlines have been cancelled, affecting passengers at London Heathrow and London Gatwick airports.

Nearly 50 of the flights have been cancelled by British Airways, including to European hotspots as well as domestic flights to Aberdeen and Glasgow.

The affected flights to Europe are:

• Algiers
• Basel
• Brussels
• Dublin
• Dusseldorf
• Frankfurt
• Geneva
• Hamburg
• Larnaca
• Milan
• Oslo
• Paris
• Rome
• Tirana
• Toulouse
• Zagreb

EasyJet has cancelled nearly 30 flights today including domestic routes to Glasgow.

European routes that have been cancelled include:

• Amsterdam
• Bari
• Bordeaux
• Bologna
• Ibiza
• Kefallonia
• Nice
• Krakow
• Olbia
• Pula
• Preveza

Experts have warned so many employees were laid off during the pandemic that airports and airlines are struggling to train new recruits in time for the great summer getaway.

EasyJet boss Johan Lundgren said there would have been fewer recent cancellations if the system had been sorted out earlier.

He said: “There’s this delay of the clearance from the Department for Transport for people to get IDs.”

And union bosses have warned airports face a “very difficult summer”.

Lucy Moreton, from the Immigration Services Union, said Border Force was “catastrophically under-staffed” and it would take up to a year to train new officers.

She said: “Border Force isn’t attracting enough candidates to fill the vacancies.”

However, a Cabinet Office spokesperson said: “There are absolutely no delays to security vetting of applicants. It is wrong to suggest otherwise and we are prioritising vetting applications from the aviation industry.

"It is for the aviation industry to manage resourcing at airports and staff absences, especially at busy times of the year."

TUI is launching a new scheme that will let passengers drop their bags off the night before their flight to try and avoid the airport queues.

And Brits are also being forced to cancel their holidays due to long delays with their passport renewals - here is the date you need to apply by to get it back in time for the summer holidays.