Holidaymakers hoping to fly over the Bank Holiday weekend should only take cabin bags to avoid delays as the chaos continues at UK airports, a travel union boss has said.

Andy Prendergast, national secretary of the GMB union, suggested check-in queues are one of the main hold-ups at airports and that by avoiding big suitcases passengers have a better chance of taking off on time.

“If people can check in online and do not take bags, that limits the disruption,” he said.

“It’s not a magic bullet, but it’s one less thing to worry about and it does reduce the chance of there being problems.”

British Airways cancelled 124 short-haul flights from Heathrow on Wednesday, while easyJet cut 31 from Gatwick to destinations including Bologna, Barcelona, Prague, Czech Republic, Krakow and Edinburgh.

TUI has also cancelled almost 200 flights from Manchester Airport between now and 30 June.

Airport bosses have blamed recruitment issues and pent-up demand after COVID travel restrictions for staff shortages, which is resulting in flight cancellations and delays.

Union Unite has warned that Ryanair could start cancelling routes as well because of a pay dispute among baggage handling staff.

Some 1,0794 flights are scheduled to take off from UK airports between Thursday and Sunday.

Avoid supermarkets and travel before noon

The AA predicts that 19 million drivers will take to the roads for Bank Holiday getaways too.

Traffic jams are expected around supermarkets and shopping centres as people stock up for the long weekend.

Motorists should also try to set off before noon or after 8pm to have the best chance of avoiding queues, Andy Marchant, traffic expert at TomTom, said.

On Wednesday Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, and Robert Courts, the aviation minister, held what the Department for Transport described as a “productive” meeting with representatives from airports, airlines and ground handling companies.

The bosses of British Airways, easyJet and TUI, all of which have had to cancel flights, were there, as well as Gatwick, Birmingham, Bristol, Luton and Newcastle airports.

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Why is there chaos at some UK airports?

Mr Shapps said industry bosses “must do their bit” to resolve the chaos before Britons go on their summer holidays.

He relayed his concerns that airline passengers are being unfairly sold tickets for holidays they cannot go on and said he will continue to talk about options that would give passengers automatic refunds.

Karen Dee, chief executive of the Airport Operators Association, said the meeting had been a “good opportunity to discuss the challenges currently facing airports following the devastating impact of the pandemic” and to set out how the industry is “putting its full effort behind getting passengers away smoothly this weekend and preparing for the summer”.

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