Leeds Bradford Airport principal airline Jet2 blasts ‘inexcusable’ British airport disruption

The group said it has been “directly impacted” by the disruption as it laid bare the troubles caused by airports and suppliers being “woefully ill-prepared and poorly resourced”.

Airports across the country have faced criticism in recent months as staff shortages have left passengers facing increasingly long queues.

It comes as airports across the country struggle to deal with a rise in passenger numbers returning to pre-pandemic levels.

Jet2 said customers have had to endure a “very much poorer experience” than they should have, with passengers hit by flight delays, cancellations, long queues, baggage handling problems and a lack of onboard catering supplies.

“Most of our 10 UK base airports have been woefully ill-prepared and poorly resourced for the volume of customers they could reasonably expect, as have other suppliers, such as onboard caterers and providers of airport PRM (Passengers with Reduced Mobility) services," said Jet2 executive chairman Philip Meeson.

“This difficult return to normal operations has occurred simply because of the lack of planning, preparedness and unwillingness to invest by many airports and associated suppliers.”

Jet2Holidays is one of the key airlines to operate out of Leeds Bradford Airport, who have faced criticism in recent months.

The airport has faced a mountain of public criticism for 'theme park style queues' stretching out the terminal building.

Recently released figures revealed that more than a quarter of flights departing Leeds Bradford Airport were delayed or cancelled during April this year.

The CEO of Leeds Bradford Airport was previously forced to issue an apology to all customers impacted by 'current queuing issues'.

"I’m sorry for all passengers that have had a negative experience travelling at LBA in recent weeks and want to assure everybody across the region that we have solutions in place to fix these problems as quickly as possible," said, CEO, Vincent Hodder.

"We’re doing everything we can to make travelling through LBA is as smooth and comfortable an experience as possible, whilst also being a safe environment."

Despite recent progress to make the queues more manageable the airport continues to advise that passengers arrive three hours early.