'Crazy scenes': From trains to planes - more travel chaos for Scots

As many people head abroad for the first time since the pandemic, airports across the UK have seen significant delays to check-in and baggage reclaim areas.

It comes as travellers have suffered disruption for weeks on ScotRail trains due to driver shortages.

Ministers have been accused of failing to “step up” as holidaymakers using UK airports continued to suffer major disruption.

Airline passengers have been hit by cancellations and long delays at airports for several months, with the situation appearing to worsen this week ahead of the Platinum Jubilee bank holiday period.

EasyJet and British Airways have been cancelling flights every day as the aviation industry suffers from staff shortages after thousands were let go during the coronavirus pandemic.

Shadow financial secretary to the Treasury James Murray claimed the Government “hasn’t prepared” for the rise in demand for travel.

On Tuesday, Glasgow Airport travellers have told of huge queues "snaking into the car park".

One traveller, John Morrison estimated that there were "hundreds" of people waiting when he arrived at the airport at 5:45am on Tuesday morning.

Mr Morrison from Glasgow had no luggage to fly to Gatwick at 6.45am today for a day trip and said he could not understand why the queues were so bad.

He said: "Crazy scenes before security barriers at Glasgow Airport this morning.

"Queue snakes it’s way round the first floor shops and back into the car park. Never seen it this bad. Most people heading on holiday and in a good mood. If you’re flying today, arrive early."

The airport told one concerned traveller trying to get to Minorca that they should be at the airport two to three hours before travelling.

At Edinburgh Airport, another traveller said on Tuesday: "The queue for Ryanair bag drop is so long we are queueing outside the Edinburgh Airport terminal in 5 degrees weather."

Holidaymakers were warned by Edinburgh Airport on Monday of lengthy queues amid surging demand for get-aways this week.

Another traveller said: "I have used Edinburgh airport for over 40 years but I have never seen it such disarray as Monday. Hundreds of people queuing outside to get to security, pandemonium ensued. The cause - two of the security scanners were not working. Lack of staff, probably. Poor management, definitely.

A spokesperson for Glasgow Airport said: "This morning’s average queue time at security was longer than usual, however, passengers moved through at a steady pace to reach their flights.

"The airport is busier than it has been for more than two years as passenger demand continues to increase.

“Our teams are working extremely hard and we would ask passengers to ensure they come prepared for security inspection and, crucially, arrive at the airport as per their airline’s stated check-in opening time and not before.”

“We would like to take this opportunity thank our passengers for their patience.”

Edinburgh Airport said one queue was found to be an isolated incident caused by a number of check-in desks opening at the same time, and two self-service machines going down.

The issue was fixed and it was understood security queues at Edinburgh Airport later lasted around ten minutes which is “normal”.

An Edinburgh Airport spokesman said: "An airline handling agent opened up a number of flights at the same time for check-in this morning instead of staggering them and that resulted in a build-up of people. We also had two self-service check-in machines going down but they were quickly brought back online and helped to clear queues quickly.

"Queues are expected in busy environments like airports and more likely in busy periods like summer. While we have been warning passengers about this the queue in question was isolated to one airline's check in desk and has since cleared.

"Our staff are working incredibly hard to process passengers as quickly as possible. The whole UK industry is experiencing challenges and is doing what it can to respond."

Edinburgh Airport said on Monday: “We’re experiencing longer than normal queues for security at the moment and that’s resulting in longer wait times.

“Security staff are working incredibly hard to safely screen passengers, and we thank everyone for their patience.”

It comes as holiday giant Tui announced it is cancelling more flights as air passengers face more disruption ahead of the Jubilee bank holiday weekend.

Tui will cancel six flights a day until the end of June, which it blamed on staff shortages at Manchester Airport.

Around two million people are set to fly over the bank holiday in one of the busiest periods so far this year.

On Tuesday, Glasgow, Stansted and Gatwick airports reported high passenger numbers.

Many airlines and airports repeatedly called for more financial support due to the collapse in demand for travel caused by the Covid-19 crisis.

They are now struggling to recruit new workers and have their security checks processed.

Labour MP Mr Murray said: “We’ve been warning for months throughout the Covid pandemic that you can’t just let the airline industry and airports fall over, let them shed all of their staff, and then expect to get back on track when demand comes back after the pandemic.

“We were warning about this, trade unions were warning about this, employee representatives were saying throughout the Covid pandemic ‘You need a sector-specific package to support the aviation sector’, and now we’re seeing what’s happened because the Government hasn’t prepared for what would obviously come next.”

He added: “The Government was not working with the airlines to get that sector-specific package in place during the pandemic.”

Arts minister Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay acknowledged that cancelled flights and long queues at UK airports are “causing a lot of distress for people".

The chief executive of the Airline Management Group said it is no surprise that travel demand increased around the Jubilee bank holiday.

Peter Davies said: “Well, in the airline industry we often refer to Swiss cheese, and whether the holes line up, and often there are many holes to line up.

“On this occasion there’s only two or three.

own to mismanagement, in my opinion, between the airlines and the airports.

“I think it’s natural for people to go away on holiday. It’s not a surprise that hotter weeks tend to be particularly busy – particularly in Jubilee week – and the fact we’ve been cooped up for a couple of years.

“So there was no surprise there that people would flock back and fly. Indeed, the bookings have been increasing for many months now. So it comes as no surprise.”