The increase in the number of passengers during the spring break coincided with high rates of staff absences due to the latest wave of Covid cases. Manchester Airport said travelers would continue to face a 60-90 minute wait to pass through security over the next two weeks, while Heathrow, Gatwick and Birmingham airports faced similar interruptions. Airport bosses encourage passengers to arrive at least three hours before their flight to arrive at the departure lounge on time. On Saturday, British Airways and EasyJet anchored more than 100 flights to each other, affecting about 15,000 passengers. The shipping company DFDS reported two-hour delays on its route from Dover to Calais on Friday, with similar delays expected throughout the weekend. Thousands of trucks trying to reach Dover Harbor were still detained on Saturday as a 37-kilometer stretch of road to Dover, the M20 heading south, remained closed. “With the start of the Easter holidays and smaller-scale episodes across the transport network, it has created a queue of more than 20 miles and about 2,000 trucks,” the Road Commercial Union told Sky News. The Spanish carrier Fenadismer said its drivers were trapped outside the port in trucks “without access to adequate rest areas or minimal sanitation and hygiene conditions”. The company urged the European Commission to put pressure on Britain to resolve the delays. Meanwhile, people traveling to France through the Channel Tunnel have been advised to bring food and drink. Toby Howe, head of tactics at the Kent Resilience Forum, also advised travelers to France to “allow a lot of extra time”. “Make sure you have some food and drink because there will be delays,” he told BBC Breakfast. “Many of the side streets, therefore, are incredible.” A technical problem with the website used to process travel documents after Brexit had initially increased port delays, he added, but the issue has since been resolved. Richard Ballantyne, CEO of the British Ports Association, called for the delays in Dover to be described as a “major incident” so that they could be cleared more quickly. “If there is a major incident, then the local resilience forum will have more resources,” he told BBC Radio 4 on Friday. “The police, the national highways, the port could channel more resources to ease the situation.” Transport secretary Grant Shapps on Friday urged operators to “redouble their efforts” to evacuate people “as smoothly as possible”, but Labor accused the government of “failing to act”. The shadow transport secretary, Louise Hay, said on Saturday: “The Tory ministers must step up and act to alleviate the unrest. The government needs to start clearing up huge delays in security checks so that airport staff can start work safely. “And they will have to hold urgent talks with ferry operators and Eurotunnel to boost capacity following P&O’s embarrassing move.” P&O Ferries suspended operations in March following a criminal and political investigation into the dismissal of 800 staff members without notice. It previously accounted for one-third of Dover’s travel capacity. A spokesman for the Ministry of Transport said: “P&O’s unacceptable actions have resulted in the detention of its ships, causing delays and congestion that would have been substantially mitigated if its fleet were operating properly. Operators, local authorities and, of course, the government need to clear up the mess. “This, along with the bad weather and the Easter rush, means that the streets are extremely busy. “We receive real-time updates as the Kent Resilience Forum, police and regional leaders work around the clock to ease the disturbance and support those affected.”
