Travel chaos: Holiday plans ruined for thousands of easyJet customers as airline ‘plans to cut 10k flights this summer’

HOLIDAY plans for hundreds of thousands of easyJet customers face ruin this summer as the airline reportedly plans to cut almost 10,000 flights.

The cancellations – which are likely to include flights to holiday hotspots like Greece and Spain – will take place during July, August and September.

EasyJet has already cancelled 600 flights this month, along with all flights to Hurghada in Egypt.

And with Gatwick reducing their daily flights, 4,000 routes are being affected.

Johan Lundgren, easyJet chief executive, said it is still working through precisely how many flights would be affected.

But a source told airline insiders plan to cut up to 10,000 flights, hitting the holiday plans for hundreds of thousands of customers.

EasyJet has already scrapped 7 per cent of the 16,000 journeys it was expected to run between July and September.

And the airline expects to be running at just 87 per cent of their 2019 levels, hoping to rise to 90 per cent by the end of September.

It is understood the majority of customers whose flights are impacted will have their trips rebooked within 24 hours.

Mr Lundgren said: “Coupled with airport caps, we are taking pre-emptive actions to increase resilience over the balance of summer, including a range of further flight consolidations in the affected airports, giving advance notice to customers and we expect the vast majority to be rebooked on alternative flights within 24 hours.

“Delivering a safe and reliable operation for our customers in this challenging environment is easyJet’s highest priority and we are sorry that for some customers we have not been able to deliver the service they have come to expect from us.

“We believe this is the right action for us to take so we can deliver for all of our customers over the peak summer period in this challenging environment.

“Coupled with airport caps, we are taking pre-emptive actions to increase resilience over the balance of summer, including a range of further flight consolidations in the affected airports, giving advance notice to customers, and we expect the vast majority to be rebooked on alternative flights within 24 hours.”

It comes after photos taken at airports up and down the country today showed holiday hopefuls spread out across the floors with bags piling up in the ongoing travel carnage.

Kids were seen sleeping on Heathrow's floor with travellers left at their wit's end as airports cancel thousands of flights.

Meanwhile, hundreds of suitcases piled up at the airport yesterday, with passengers told they may not get their luggage back for two days.

A sea of bags spread across the airport floor in Terminal 2 after the luggage belts broke, leaving passengers stranded without their belongings.

Holidaymakers posted online in shock at the carnage, labelling it "utter bedlam", a "nightmare" and a "s*** show", while a Sky News reporter said they had "never seen anything like it".