Simon Calder offers travellers fast track advice

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The travel expert answered questions from tourists on ITV’s Good Morning Britain. Many Britons have had flights cancelled in recent days.

One tourist asked whether they should pay for fast track service at airport security to escape the queues.

Simon said it probably wasn’t worth paying for fast track but passengers should make a fuss if the queue was really long.

The travel expert said: “If you’ve got a 6am flight, you’re probably going to get there at 3am, pretty horrible.

“If by 5am, you’re still in the security lane, you then start making a serious fuss because there will be other people who’ve got flights at 9am in the morning who are just there.”

Richard asked whether he should pay for fast track if he was by himself travelling to the airport.

Simon said: “If it’s an anxiety for you, I would say spend anywhere between £4 and £7 for fast track.

“Bear in mind that it also sells out so kind of start thinking now because if everyone bought fast track it wouldn’t be fast at all.”

While the travel chaos could be set to get worse over the Jubilee bank holiday weekend, Simon was optimistic for the future.

He said: “It’s going to be much better from Monday onwards because there will be fewer people flying in and out.”

However, he added that we still don’t know how July and August are going to look for British travellers.

The expert said that recent easyJet cancellations over half-term week could cost the airline £10million in compensation.

He added that the cost of cancellations gave airlines a “strong incentive to start throwing money at the problem”.

GMB also spoke to Kully Sandhu, of the Aviation Recruitment Industry about the travel sector’s staffing problems.

He said that the industry “quite simply hadn’t had enough time” to get sorted after the Government lifted travel restrictions.

Sandhu said there were too many vacancies and candidates were able to “pick and choose” when it came to jobs.

He said they had had “no shows” at interviews as candidates had so many choices of available jobs.

Simon said that British tourists must remember to be respectful to airport staff despite the stress of queues.

He said they were working in a “very difficult and high stress environment” and wanted travellers to be able to get away on their holidays.

Passengers have faced queues at Bristol and Manchester airports while cancellations have upset many holiday plans.

Britons should be offered an alternative flight on their intended day of travel as long as one is available.

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