COVID-19: ‘Total chaos’ at UK airports on busiest weekend this year – with COVID checks and understaffing blamed | UK News

Travelers have said UK airports are “utter chaos” as hundreds of thousands take off for the summer holidays.

Two one-hour queues to show COVID-19[female[feminine documents before being cleared airside were reported at Heathrow on Saturday as there were complaints of understaffing at Stansted airport causing “chaotic scenes”.

Airports and airlines expect their busiest weekend of the year, with Heathrow expected to handle around 128,000 passengers over the two days, although this is down from the daily pre-pandemic volumes of ‘approximately 230,000 to 260,000 in July 2019.

All schools are now disbanded and with several popular European vacation destinations now on the Green and Orange Lists, people want to run away after being unable to go abroad for many months due to the pandemic.

Heathrow chief executive John Holland-Kaye said more staff would be available to ensure passengers a “smooth journey”.

However, Fiona Brett, a violinist traveling to Frankfurt with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, said she had to wait in line for two hours at Heathrow on Saturday to show her COVID vaccination certificate to staff when checking in , despite the registration already online.

Ms Brett, from Watlington, Oxfordshire, said “utter chaos” meant her 9:30 am flight was delayed.

“They were constantly calling people out of the line for the next flight that was closing,” she said.

“In fact, it would have been better to show up at 8:30 am and be called from the back of the line at the front – utter chaos.

“When I finally managed to check in (15 minutes after the flight closed), the security lines were non-existent and there was hardly anyone airside in the terminal.

“I think the queues were not caused by too many people, but by the airlines having to do all the extra checks before checking in properly.”