the times | Monday April 4 2022 21
News
Travellers seeking an early Easter get-
away at the weekend faced severe dis-
ruption caused by congestion, bad wea-
ther and staffing shortages.
At Manchester airport inbound trav-
ellers faced lengthy delays, and many
abandoned their luggage rather than
wait for it to appear on a carousel.
Those seeking to travel by sea fared
worse. Gridlocked traffic around
Dover, poor conditions in the Channel
and the suspension of P&O services
caused delays of up to nine hours.
The British Ports Association (BPA)
said that disruption would continue
until the middle of the week, though it
expected congestion to ease as the
week progressed.
Richard Ballantyne, the BPA’s chief
executive, said: “Yesterday we were up
to nine-hour queues outside the port.
Traffic measures are in place, which...
are working fairly well and it enables
other people around east Kent and
businesses, residents etc to move
around freely. But [it is] not a good posi-
tion if you’re stuck in a vehicle for six to
eight hours.”
Manchester airport said that waits
experienced by passengers arriving
held on the motorway for more than a
day.
Natalie Elphicke, the Conservative
MP for Dover, said the problems had
caused an “unacceptable impact” on
residents and tourists.
“The traffic disruption caused by the
P&O’s actions is very serious,” she said.
“Coupled with adverse weather condi-
tions and the Easter get-away traffic,
the situation has become severe. This
can be expected to continue for the
next few days.”
Inevitably, some families said thatEaster getaways
hit by nine-hour
queues at Dover
with hold baggage were due to staff
shortages and security checks that had
slowed recruitment.
A spokesman said: “It takes time for
people to be able to start work in our
operation. That is why we are exploring
short-term measures to deliver the best
service we can, such as the use of agen-
cy staff and ways in which existing
colleagues can support our operation.
“We are aware similar challenges are
being faced by airlines and third parties,
such as baggage handling agents, oper-
ating on our site.”
On the south coast officials said that
Dover had suffered a perfect storm of
travel chaos, caused by the P&O ferry
crisis, tourists travelling to Kent for
breaks and an actual storm.
Bad weather including high winds in
the Channel caused a DFDS ferry to hit
a berth, taking it out of service. Three
P&O ferries were also not sailing
following the fallout from the mass
redundancies in their UK workforce.
The congestion led to the activation
of Operation Brock, a traffic manage-
ment plan designed for use in the event
of a no-deal Brexit, which turns the
eastbound side of the M20 over to
freight between junctions 8 and 9.
Some lorry drivers said they had beenTom Whipple
they had missed their sailings. Nick
Gale, a teacher from Kent, had been
planning to take his family to Amster-
dam, but after being stuck in traffic for
more than two hours they missed their
ferry.
“Around Dover it’s awful,” he said.
“There is no communication for what
non-freight customers [are] to do.
We’re local to the area so knew a couple
of ways to beat the huge queues but it’s
literally not moving.
“We’ve got no food and an eight-
year-old in the back moaning.”UKNEWSINPICTURESBA prices fly
sky-high after
cancellations
Tom WhippleBritish Airways is charging extortion-
ate prices for many Easter short-haul
flights in an apparent attempt to
discourage bookings.
Almost every economy seat from
Heathrow to Manchester until Easter
Monday was being sold last night for
£414. For Paris the price was £418 and
for Milan £653. The same figures
appeared across many days and flights,
and alternative carriers were several
times cheaper. Air France’s cheapest
flight to Paris over that period was
slightly more than £50.
BA has cancelled up to 100 flights a
day over the past week and delayed
others. Problems stemmed from an IT
glitch that was solved but knock-on
effects, staffing difficulties and sickness
left the operator struggling to maintain
services at the weekend. Limiting sales
meant it would be able to cope better
with cancellations and meet its duty to
get passengers on other flights.
The Independent reported that such
“deterrent pricing” was last used by
Monarch Airlines as it teetered on the
edge of collapse. BA’s problems ap-
peared more short-term. Last night one
route became competitive again.
Flights from Heathrow to Dublin over
Easter had dropped from £419 to £99.
BA was contacted for a response.
Separately, travellers at Heathrow
complained of long queues. The airport
blamed “high passenger volumes”.Operation Brock, which turns part of the M20 over to freight, added to the jams