July 8, 2024, 1:16 p.m
A busy arrivals lounge at Terminal 2 as the airport is under a lot of pressure due to canceled flights and staff shortages. (file image.).
Image: Alamy
Thousands of holidaymakers were left stranded after London’s Heathrow and Gatwick airports were hit with dozens of flight cancellations today.
Both EasyJet at London Gatwick and British Airways at Heathrow were reportedly forced to ground 32 short-haul flights each.
Poor weather conditions and air traffic control (ATC) problems were blamed for the cancellations and delays.
Domestic flights as well as trips to Italy, Hungary and Spain were affected.
While services appear to have returned to normal this afternoon, many EasyJet flights due to depart on Monday morning appeared to be delayed by several hours.
The airline said in a statement: “EasyJet operated around 1,800 flights yesterday, but unfortunately some flights across Europe were disrupted due to adverse weather and air traffic control delays.
“We have done everything we can to minimize the impact on our customers whose flights have been affected, providing hotel accommodation and meals as well as refunds or transfer to an alternative flight and informing customers that they will be reimbursed if need. make your own arrangements.
“The safety and well-being of our customers is our highest priority and although it is beyond our control, we apologize for any inconvenience caused.”
Heathrow Airport was hit by delays this morning, leaving passengers stranded. 
Image: Alamy
EasyJet passengers are unlikely to receive compensation following today’s delay, with the problems being blamed on extraordinary circumstances,” reports The Sun.
The message sent to the passenger reportedly read: “We are sorry that your flight has been cancelled. The reason is the limitation of air traffic control.
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“The disruption to your flight is beyond our control and is considered an extraordinary circumstance.”
Angry passengers took to social media to complain amid today’s delays.
One user X wrote: “Great that you canceled my flight from Copenhagen today. Especially sending an email at 2:30am.
“The only way back now is via Norwegain and it costs £500 one way.
Male and female passengers waiting for a flight at Heathrow Airport departures (file image.). 
Image: Alamy
The other messaged easyJet and wrote: “I’m stuck at Gatwick, I’ve been here for hours, the flight has been cancelled, I’ve spent 3 hours trying to deal with you.”
And a third said: “I wouldn’t recommend EasyJet. It’s almost 48 hours since we were supposed to be home – we decided to take the train after the third canceled flight.’
Ryanair also apologized for the delays experienced by customers this morning, attributing the ATC cancellation to “a lack of staff”.
A statement on the airline’s website read: “Ryanair, Europe’s No. 1 airline, apologized to its passengers on Monday 8 July for the excessive flight delays caused by the European ATC staff shortage, which is affecting all European airlines today 8 July.
“ATC services, which benefited from the absence of an interruption to the ATC strike in France this summer, continue to underperform (despite flight volumes being 5% lower than in 2019) with repeated “staff shortages”.
“On Monday 8 July, 21% of Ryanair’s first wave of departures (134 out of 579 aircraft) were delayed due to ATC ‘understaffing’. These repeated flight delays due to ATC mismanagement are unacceptable.
“We apologize to our passengers for these repeated ATC flight delays, which are deeply regrettable but beyond Ryanair’s control.”
It comes after British Airways was forced to ground two of its planes after being struck by lightning on Sunday.