Thousands of Britons stuck at airports as easyJet cancels another 80 flights

theguardian.com:

UK holidaymakers faced yet more travel chaos on Sunday as easyJet cancelled another 80 flights and roads began to clog up with drivers returning from half-term and jubilee weekend breaks.

Tens of thousands of British travellers are estimated to be stranded at airports across Europe after close to 200 flight cancellations over the weekend.

As the four-day platinum jubilee weekend came to an end, along with the half-term holiday for most schools in England and Wales, easyJet said it had cancelled about 80 flights “due to the ongoing challenging operating environment”, affecting an estimated 12,000 people.

A handful of British Airways and Wizz Air flights to Gatwick were also axed on Sunday and about 3,000 passengers heading for Luton were diverted to other airports after a temporary power failure affected air traffic control systems there.

Meanwhile on the roads, many of the 19 million drivers the AA had predicted would get behind the wheel over the four-day weekend began to make their journey home, putting strain on major routes.

In London, the travel woes will continue into the coming week, with 4,000 tube station staff due to walk out from 24 hours on Monday after talks aimed at avoiding a strike collapsed. Londoners have been told to avoid travelling on the tube between Monday morning and 8am on Tuesday.

Sunday’s easyJet cancellations mainly affected Gatwick airport. They come after 25 departures and 22 arrivals from the West Sussex hub were cancelled on Saturday, affecting at least 7,000 passengers.

“We are very sorry and fully understand the disruption this will have caused for our customers,” the airline said. “We are focused on getting them to their destination as soon as possible.” EasyJet said it had extended its