Ryanair warning to passengers with flights booked over next few days

LONG airport queues and frazzled passengers have become a common sight in recent days, as families heading abroad for half term get caught up in travel chaos.

In an effort to manage the long waits at both check in and airport security, Ryanair has issued a warning to passengers travelling in the next few days.

An email to customers read: "Please arrive at the airport three hours prior to the departure of your Ryanair flight as we are experiencing security delays at the airport.

"Please note, that our boarding gates close 30 minutes prior to the departure of your flight."

Ryanair has escaped from the current crisis at UK airports largely unscathed compared to the likes to British Airways, TUI and easyJet, who have all had to cancel hundreds of flights.

Pictures of long queues have been seen at airports everywhere from Bristol and Manchester to Gatwick and Heathrow.

Brits have been urged not to arrive at the airport more than three hours early - despite facing horrific five-hour queues that snake through terminals into car parks outside.

Even when they do make it to departures they still face a gruelling getaway lottery, with hundreds of flights scrapped.

And train stations are no better, with footage taken at London's St Pancras station showing huge queues for the Eurostar.

Brits waited on pavements outside the station as a "technical issue" caused delays leaving London.

TUI announced today that it was cancelling hundreds of flights next month.

It plans to scrap around 43 flights a week at Manchester Airport until June 30.

The company said in a statement: "Due to the amount of on-going disruption in our operation at Manchester Airport, we have made the incredibly difficult decision to cancel six flights a day (43 flights a week), from Tuesday 31st May until Thursday 30th June. All other airports in the UK are planned to operate as normal."

"We understand how disappointing this will be for those impacted; however, we believe this is necessary to provide stability and a better customer service at Manchester Airport."

Hundreds of flights with easyJet were also recently cancelled after the airline suffered from an IT glitch.

Meanwhile, British Airways has cancelled more than 100 flights, but these were cancelled in advance as part of their schedule reduction until October.

The flag carrier confirmed that 16,000 flights between March and October would be cancelled to prevent short-notice cancellations.