Mass delays for holidaymakers travelling from Leeds Bradford Airport as ongoing staff shortages lead to two hour queues

LBA confirmed they are currently experiencing longer queuing times than normal.

Airports across the country are under increasing pressure with many understaffed to deal with passenger numbers returning to pre-pandemic levels.

Passenger numbers in March were almost three times greater than in January and continue to grow.

In a statement provided to the YEP, a spokesperson said:

"We would like to apologise to those impacted and we’re working hard to overcome these challenges with ongoing recruitment and training activities and more staff being released to the operation from training each week.

"Unfortunately, these current challenges are an industry wide problem, caused by the speed of withdrawal of travel restrictions and testing which has led to the rapid recovery of international travel.

"We are actively managing queues to pull people to the front as their flights near departure, which ensures that very few passengers have missed flights."

One frustrated flyer tweeted questioning how airports have found themselves in this situation.

"They've known for weeks that airports would be getting back to normal passenger levels but failed to recruit the staff to replace those who they laid off earlier in the pandemic." he said.

Queues are said to intensify during peak travel times between 5am and 9am in the morning and late afternoon.

Another user described the system as inadequate, tweeting:

"Inadequate capacity for processing customers at Leeds Bradford airport this morning. Long queue not moving fast."

Leeds Bradford remains confident that with additional staff being recruited the situation will return to normal within weeks.

In the mean time, LBA are recommending passengers:

Arrive early - Passengers are advised to arrive at the airport three hours prior to their flight departure time.

Prepare your carry-on baggage - Remove all large electronic devices, carry liquids and gels less than 100ml in a one litre zip lock bag.

Empty your pockets - Remove all items from pockets, remove any jackets or coats and remove any boots or high heeled shoes and put them and pocket contents through the x-ray machines.

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