Don’t blame the beleaguered travel industry for this week’s chaos

After two years of ever-changing government policy that brought the tourism sector to its knees, of course companies are struggling to scale up, writes Helen Coffey

I have seen a lot of finger-pointing, even from government ministers (Reuters)

It’s a tale as old as time: the long Easter weekend approaches, and travel chaos descends. It was like this even before the pandemic. As families scrambled to head off for the bank holiday on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, rail and road bosses up and down the land would decide it was the perfect juncture to do large-scale engineering works, creating a heady mix of traffic jams, queues, packed train carriages and rail replacement bus services.

Then, for two years, we were insulated against such woes; domestic Covid restrictions meant the big Easter getaway shut down completely. But this year it was back in force with a new twist: added to the usual transport strife, UK airports buckled under the pressure of their highest numbers of travellers since the pandemic began; airlines cancelled dozens of flights in response to staff sickness, and ferry passengers were left high and, quite literally, dry, as P&O Ferries failed to restart its Dover-Calais service and competitor DFDS announced there was no room at the inn.

Covering this chaos for the past fortnight, I saw myriad accounts of frustrated holidaymakers who’d been let down, with some missing flights abroad due to hours-long airport security queues. I sympathise; I understand their disappointment that swiftly hardened into anger. I have also seen a lot of fingerpointing, even from government ministers, with bystanders blaming the travel and aviation industries for their failure to prepare for the sudden and dramatic scaling up of demand.