HOLIDAYMAKERS face a summer of travel chaos at UK airports as a perfect storm of staff shortages, bad weather and delays in the delivery of new planes have led to a slew of cancellations. After two days of chaos at Heathrow and Gatwick , delays and cancellations continue to impact Ryanair’s flights across Europe. 4 Air Traffic Control (ATC) staff shortages have caused problems for airlines Credit: NATS 4 Ryanair boss Michael O' Leary has labelled the problems 'unacceptable' Credit: EPA 4 Other problems like bad weather and a shortage of planes are also contributing to the chaos Credit: Getty Today on its website, the airline apologised to customers for excessive flight delays 'caused by European Air Traffic Control (ATC) staff shortages'.
The airline said: "On Tuesday July 9, 15 per cent of Ryanair’s first wave of departures, 88 out of 580 aircraft, were delayed due to ATC ‘staff shortages’. "These repeated flight delays due to ATC mismanagement are unacceptable." As well as staffing issues, European Air Traffic Control are having to deal with restricted airspace due to conflict in Ukraine and the Middle East.
The continuing problems come after British Airways and EasyJet were forced to cancel more than 60 flights Sunday and Monday - again blamed on ATC staff shortages and bad weather. The International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers Associations says there are shortages across the globe but Europe has been particularly hard hit as the industry bounced back fro.