Gatwick Airport: Searches for ‘cancel my flight’ explode to highest point in a year as holidaymakers face hour long delays

The last week of May - the school half term period and Jubilee weekend - saw staff shortages at airports up and down the country resulting in queues lasting hours and missed flights for many holidaymakers.

On Monday, May 23, disgruntled passengers at Gatwick Airport said there were two-hour queues for security checks. On Tuesday, May 24, the Crawley Observer was told all queues had now gone.

On Saturday, May 28, Gatwick was ‘operating normally’ despite easyJet announcing it was set to cancel more than 200 flights from the airport over the next ten days.

On Tuesday, May 31, there were no queues for airport security. The vast majority of check-in areas were busy but there was no significant queuing, with the exception of Vueling.

But some passengers took to Twitter to say they were still experiencing long waits on Thursday, June 2.

The analysis, by travel experts at OurWovenJourney reveals that searches for ‘cancel my flight’ exploded to double the average volume within the past week, an unprecedented increase in Brits looking to cancel their travel plans, according to Google search data analysis.

The data also reveals that searches for ‘refund my flight’ have exploded 137% since the chaos began.

A spokesperson from OurWovenJourney said: “With over 200 flights being cancelled in the last week due to staffing issues in airports up and down the country, it is fascinating to see the scale at which British holidaymakers are making the decision to cancel their own flights and not risk hour long queues and general travel disruption.

“These findings highlight the enormous impact that airlines are having on their customers with searches for 'cancel my flight' higher during this period than when travel restrictions as a result of lockdown were in effect.”

READ THIS: Gatwick Airport: All the cancelled easyJet and Wizz Air flights for Wednesday, June 8

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