Essex travel agent warns holidaymakers to prepare for further airport delays during Easter holidays
Around 1.3 million passengers are due to fly from Stansted airport over the Easter holidays
As airports face their busiest travel period since the pandemic began, an Essex travel agent has warned holidaymakers that delays will continue.
This comes as travellers around the country are facing cancelled flights and long queues at security, which have been blamed on a shortage of staff caused by increasing Covid cases.
Diane Price works at Colchester Travel and says hiring more staff won't immediately solve the problem: "The airlines didn't fly for a long time so they've got to recuperate the cash to employ new staff and they seem to have just held back.
"Obviously, once hired, staff have to go through all the training. It isn't a five minute job - this is six to eight weeks of training to get them ready."
Diane continued, suggesting the air industry may not seem as attractive to job-seekers as it once was, noting many who worked in the travel industry before the pandemic have chosen not to return: "Everybody in the travel industry has gone off and got other jobs outside of the industry.
"Many have found they like their new work better, or that it's an easier job. There aren't enough candidates out there for the jobs available."
She says this shortage of willing employees, combined with the number of workers off sick, will increase people's wait times at airports: "In the past, airlines could just call on their stand-by staff when people were ill, but due to the pandemic, there are no stand-by staff, because they all left, and airlines haven't been able to get them back or replace them."
Diane predicts travellers will be facing longer waits for a while, whilst new staff are trained, and covid restrictions in destination countries continue: "You can't check in for a flight now an hour, or an hour and a half before take-off, it just isn't feasible.
"You've got to have your covid pass downloaded, the necessary documents to enter certain countries, possibly a passenger tracking form - staff at airports want to see that.
"We didn't have this two years ago, before the pandemic, so it's all adding to the delays."
Her number one tip for anyone planning on flying on holiday soon: "Make sure you get to the airport early - at least three hours before."
Around 1.3 million passengers are due to fly from Stansted airport over the Easter holidays, with 240,000 passengers expected to fly across the four-day Easter weekend, compared to just over 8,000 last year when covid restrictions were in place.