Bristol Airport: Live updates as passengers wait from 2am and pictures show more chaotic queues

There are more long queues at Bristol Airport this morning as passengers started queuing from 2am. Pictures on social media show large queues at the airport on Tuesday.

The airport has apologised to customers who have experienced delays, last-minute cancellations, and long queues. Some holidays have been cancelled and families have been told to go home after waiting hours at the airport.

An easyJet flight at 7.05am to Amsterdam was cancelled on Tuesday morning with one passenger claiming to be in the queue when she heard the news by text. The airport said it had been planning for its busiest week since 2019, with more than 300,000 passengers expected between May 26 and June 5.

A combination of delayed and cancelled flights over the past few days has led to queues and packed departure halls. The Liberal Democrats have called on the UK Government to convene its emergency committee (COBR) to solve the half-term chaos at Britain’s airports.

The party’s transport spokesperson, MP Sarah Olney, said: “Ministers need to get a grip. Britain’s airports are a complete and utter shambles. It’s clear that both the airlines and government have failed.” The politician accused transport secretary Grant Shapps of being “asleep at the wheel” and “doing nothing to help stranded families”.

The Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) said part of the issue was that passengers were assuming they had to arrive very early for flights and had begun queuing from the early hours. See more about the reasons behind the chaos here.

“The challenge for us as an industry is to explain to people not to turn up much earlier than they need to," a spokesperson said. “A lot of it is to do with perception, rather than reality.” TUI declined to put a figure on