Travel with Katie Butler: Holidays and airport disruption update

Katie Butler writes: Late deals are continuing to thrive. In fact, bookings travelling within the next 12 months accounted for 36 per cent of our total bookings.

Why are so many flights being cancelled when Covid restrictions are easing internationally?

Airlines have now been told by the Government and regulator that they must cancel flights that they won’t be able to facilitate in order to reduce the mayhem we have seen in the last few months across some UK airports.

Covid restrictions placed around the world damaged the industry massively and thousands of jobs, including baggage handlers and security, were lost.

Also, many airport staff who were laid off at the start of the pandemic have since found work elsewhere.

In addition to the lack of staff, recruiting new staff is not an overnight resolve. Airport staff, particularly those working airside, need clearance from the

Government and the Civil Aviation Authority and the vetting process is taking longer than usual.

The Government changed the rules in April to allow new recruits to receive training while waiting for final clearance and so hopefully the situation will start to improve.

I am due to travel in the summer holidays but I’m worried that my destination will change the entry requirements again. Will I be able to get a refund?

Many of the most popular holiday destinations have lifted most, if not all, Covid related entry requirements, and so of course there is a chance that restrictions could be brought back in should we see a significant rise in Covid-19 cases.

How the airlines and tour operators will deal with this situation is not known, although dependent on the level of restriction, we expect there will be some flexibility, more so if you are booked on a package holiday.

If a country changes its entry requirements to only allow the fully-vaccinated, then we expect that tour operators and some airlines may allow a change of destination. But if for example a country goes back to a pre-departure negative as a requirement, then this is likely to be a case of adhering to the test requirement.

I am travelling with Jet2holidays and received a text advising I would not get my inflight meal that I have ordered and paid for. Will this be reimbursed?

Absolutely, any service that you have paid for and not received will be fully reimbursed.

I haven’t got round to booking my own family holiday just yet, although I have narrowed it down to Cyprus or Greece… I think. I am so indecisive, there are so many wonderful places to travel to. Travel agents are simply the worst when it comes to booking their own holiday. After such a busy week I got a little tired of looking and could not make my mind up on where to go. Getting this sorted is top of my agenda this week!