Airport Chaos Undercover | Dispatches | Channel 4 Documentaries 

We spoke to a Special Assistance person last June who was helping us through our airport. He commented that it was his last day of working before being made redundant. On asking if he had another job lined up, he said he had - working for a major supermarket - better hours, more pay, less travelling and staff discount from day of starting !! Good move, in my opinion !

As a former Heathrow worker I can assure you that the biggest problem in air travel is how it's been fractured into thousands of ultra-specific private entities who are all seeking ever-increasing profits. They take a process that should be smooth and integrated and hack it into a million steps that they can charge for each stage of. They bully and bluster away their competitors (even though they're all working towards the same goal) and carve out little fiefdoms over which they have complete control, and steadfastly refuse to communicate with the other petty corporate fiefdoms scattered across the airport unless it's done in some executive lounge in a city hundreds, if not thousands of miles away, days or weeks later. They constantly scrap and backbite at each other, many having more people working in their accounting and legal departments working out how to shunt fines and penalties onto their rival corporate fiefdoms than they do addressing and fixing the problems. Although the airlines and their orbiting corporations like to give the impression that they're all working together as a smooth, well oiled machine, the reality is that behind the scenes their all just constantly squabbling children, and they don't give a shit who suffers providing it isn't their fiefdom's bottom line. Oh, and they'll lie shamelessly and constantly. They know due to 'security restrictions' that they never, ever have to tell you any information you could actually verify, so they'll just lie to you, each other, the media, the Government, everyone, over and over, again and again. As a passenger, you're but a casualty of attrition in never ending spats between pathetic petty corporate fiefdoms trying to eek mere pennies more out of every time one of their staff so much as twitches.

Imagine having your salary cut from over £40k to £17k, for longer hours, less holidays, worse working conditions! It's simple greed by the airlines. I bet their directors are still being paid obscenely high salaries, probably much higher than they were before. They deserve to go bankrupt. All of them. I've flown a lot, in my adult life, but because it's such a horrible experience now, I don't mind if I never fly again.

We need more of these documentaries to show people what’s happening..well done to the team..

I’m an aircraft cleaner and have been for just over six months now and I hybridised into ramp staff to help them out when I could. But the shortness of staff was truly insane during summer. I have so many stories about that time that many might not believe me. For example at one point during a hugely busy afternoon with planes taking off every few minutes there were only three Swissport aircraft cleaners in the entire airport in Bristol. And the other two were needed for the water and lavatory truck services so I ended up running from one aircraft to another doing everything that I could to get the essential cleaning tasks done. I was soaking with sweat and getting increasingly tired and out of breath as I literally ran between aircraft. And eventually I ended up trembling with exhaustion and utterly out of breath at the bottom of the aircraft steps of the second last plane that I needed to clean and I was unable to move. Fortunately I didn’t take too long long to recover my breath and drink some water then finish the final two aircraft for that afternoon. On both planes the flight attendants expressed concern over my physical condition and supplied me with fresh water bottles. But the truly most insane moment came just as I finished the forward galley, the captain came out of the cockpit looking a bit harried himself. He basically pleaded to allow the pax to start boarding while I finished up my tasks. I thought about it a moment and said that if they start boarding the pax using the forward door then I would have time to do the essentials at the back before they reached me and I could slip out quietly at the back and let the flight attendants know so then both doors could be used. I still occasionally wonder exactly how much pressure he was under to first bend the rules about all the cleaners needing to be off the aircraft before the flight attendants do their security checks then let the pax start boarding. Utter madness. But the plan worked and I finished the essential tasks to clean just as the rows at the emergency exits at the wings were filling. I grabbed my stuff and slipped out then waited under the horizontal stabiliser to be picked up by my supervisor once he’d finished his duties. And yeah I’d barely put my stuff down before pax were being sent up the back steps. And I still wonder why he asked my permission-he way outranked me and could have just ordered it anyway. Regardless I was glad to help. Then there were the two night shifts alone but that’s a story for another day.

I love how companies fired their experienced staff over the pandemic. Then cried and tried to bring them back with a worse contract. I dont blame the staff for not wanting to go back. They got a better payed job doing 9-5 then any Airline job. They struggled then crying out for staff. Its hilarious.

Thank you channel 4 for making these documentaries available.

Cabin Crew here: laid off for 2 years, had to ask social services for money during the time as the airline did not pay me anything. In those 2 years, 400-500 people resigned as they saw no return to work for offered salary. Starting gross salary with zero experience in the Northern Europe was; 1074 eur! With 6 years flying experience gross was 1836 eur. Some places raised the minimal pay, meanwhile others (many of so called legacy airlines) are making the conditions worse. My airline tried to cut off the extras like daily allowance and overtime (paid in case of delays or extended duties). At the end, Court ordered to pay the allowances ( yes Airline needed to be brought to Court to fix the problem). Bosses are still working hard on getting that overtime cut from the extra salary. Needless to say that overtime comes from delays, where your work days gets extended from 7 to12 hours or from 11 to 15 hrs. And sadly on those delays you also become a punching bag for frustrated costumers. Alternative to decrease of salary, is being fired... My gross is approx 28k this year, my boss's 1,2 mil. And I am working 23, 24, 25, 26, 30, 31 December also 1 and 2 January, and well.... offices will be closed on most of those days. It's not just passengers being fed up, as seen in documentary; we're all getting tired.

25 years ago a baggage handler would have been a respectable career which allowed one to have a family, own a house, and drive a brand new car. Now it’s a poverty job which barely puts you above the breadline. It’s a microcosm of everything that’s gone wrong in this dump of a country.

The airlines need to STOP overcrowding booking when they DO NOT have the crew to support it. GREED !!

Companies don't want to employ people, thats the issue, profit over people.

"Wasn't prepared for the volume of people" No...THIS is what happens when you don't respect or value your staff enough, for the work they do and think they are disposable, and think you will be able to replace/ rehire them easily. Don't fire your ground staff (the literal people who keep your industry moving) when a pandemic hits because you don't want to pay them or facilitate them being able to claim furlough, then seem surprised or shocked when not everyone is willing to come back after a year of unemployment, that they had no choice or say in, and work for an employer who showed little compassion or concern when making mass numbers redundant with no safety net. The stress these workers are put under even before the pandemic was ridiculous and for only a tad over min wage! JOKE! but post pandemic...its diabolical!! When you do have enough staff to do the required job standards and security measures slip and in the aviation industry this can have horrendous consequences - Prime example in NO WAY should passengers be able to stick their heads through to the baggage handing area Oh surprise surprise blame the cleaners for the delay... the usual scapegoats, the lowest peg on the pole that is abused and taken the for granted at every stage. Despite having one of the most important jobs as its not just "cleaning" that they do, It's meant to be secure search and clean of the aircraft, as stated in their contracts and training - that is also dictated by the CAA! but is ignored and belittled but the aircraft providers at every turn. OH FANTASTIC making fatigued pilots fly planes... seems like the safest option, what could go wrong... opens another tab to put on air crash investigations Our Easy jet return flight from Pairs was delayed back in June and the way they rushed and shoved us onto the plane once it landed and we zoomed down the runway in order to keep the delay under the "allowed" delay time so they didn't have to compensate us was honestly comical, I didn't help that my sister was on crutches and couldn't move fast/ easily but no one seemed to care. Then when we landed we waited over an hour for luggage to come out which increased our parking fee.

Deeply shocked by the poor pay and hostile treatment of pilots, CAs, and ground staff on the part of the carriers. These people are the fundamental units in ensuring passengers’ safety and how they are treated reflects a lot on the mindset and culture of the airlines.

I would have a panic attack waiting in that line!

I live in Germany where things are relatively well organised but I have given up on flying. I plan to drive to Croatia next summer.

I love all 'airport' stories and have always been on-side with the staff. My suggestion was always to the passengers to 1. check their tickets 2. Get to the airport sooner than expected 3. Make sure they have all the required documents 4. Medical conditions affected with delays and increasing medications needed. . etc etc etc... After watching this program I feel more inclined for airlines to clean up their act to avoid these unnecessary delays.

Make CEOs personally liable for forcing staff to work outside rostered hours....Including cancellations etc.

“They refused to work because they were exhausted “ 😳 can one blame them? Overworked & complaints of being underpaid do not make for productive employees. studies do show that fatigue causes accidents & airlines can get sued for millions but priceless lives r lost unnecessarily so does cost savings really make sense in long run? 😮

Well, that's me never ever flying Whizz Air. I cannot believe their CEO actually sat there and said "We are all fatigued, but sometimes we have to go the extra mile." NO. NO NO! Pilots should be told the exact opposite. If you feel anyway fatigued you should feel confident enough to decline a flight. I hope that CEO is fired. That's a disaster waiting to happen.

Most employers dont really care about their staff and think they can be replaced, not caring how it effects their lives, by anyone.

I worked for Manchester Airports Group, although not at Manchester. They are the most inept and clueless at what they do. The undercover reporting we’ve seen here is unsurprising. All they are concerned about is profit and working employees to the point to exhaustion. Whilst the airlines are responsible for the check-in process for their flights, one of the major issues is the replacement of “people at check-in desks” with automation, which you then rely on the general public being able to use at speed. As part of the cost cut, there’s never enough staff to then help those that struggle with this. Aviation processes have always been challenging except to the most experienced and it’s bad service and unfair to expect people to have to deal with this. As for MAG - they need to wake up and smell the coffee. You get more satisfaction from jamming your hand down the u-bend of a toilet than being on their payroll. Their corporate brand is “watch your career takeoff with MAG.” The reality is watch it nose-dive into the ground. Vile company.

I would recommend that all airlines immediately cut their number of flights by 15% until delays/cancelations reach pre-pandemic levels. It should be accompanied by an intense See Britain and Stay-cation campaigns.

I have worked at the airports and up in the air since 2015 and have not returned since the pandemic. It is the ever worsening conditions and constant battles between the airlines and the staff about reducing the salaries. I'm not going back until the salaries reflect the job and the hours.

Same in the Hotel Industry. And what people usually do then is go vent their frustration on the people that show up for work. The only thing that does is make sure those people quit too. You want to blame someone ? Blame the management. Its not a shortage of people, its record low wages that expect you to work for 3 people. More can be found easily. But then the yearly bonuses would not look quite so nice.

Reason why I'm not traveling at present, is the Airports are a mess. Manchester is the WORSED, as I live near it, the staff, the whole Airport is a mess. It's not getting better but worse, no way I'm waiting outside to fly away, I'll wait, save money, and go around the UK in the mean time.

Seeing all the footage and chaos of sorting out the hold luggage, I'm reminded why I only ever take a cabin bag. No worry of it getting lost, no queuing for checking it in, and can just leave straight away once you arrive at your destination. Obviously there are times where you need a proper suitcase, but I feel like for a regular week long holiday you can get away with just taking a cabin bag. Hold luggage isn't worth the stress, cost and risk just to get a bit more luggage space..

Working at airports as a cleaner, or baggage handler, was always well paid, when I was young. They paid premium salaries, far better than anyone could earn, doing similar work locally. The travel sector was a privileged area to work in, which meant you got very good service, and it was a real pleasure, as a passenger. Delays were pretty rare. Clearly now, it's like a cattle market. Staff are poorly paid, overworked, stressed, and treated in a very disrespectful way - from baggage handlers, to pilots. The public have gone along with the legislation, cutting back on union rights, over the last few decades. Now there is no real support for staff, or expert negotiators, negotiating salaries, and working conditions etc. Greed, by corporations, and company directors has destroyed many industries. I'm just pleased that I'm older now, and don't have to be a part of it all.

12:00 I thought it was possible to get married in the UK too. How about even getting married in the town where most of the participants in this joyful event live? So they can walk to the celebration? And the bride wouldn't have to feel so drained afterwards.

After Charles de Gaul, Birmingham is the worst airport that I have ever been through. This documentary has warned me not to bother with Manchester - ever, and having tried EasyJet once, never again also! Thank you, Jane and your undercover reporter.

This confirms my decision not to fly until the airports and flight companies have got their act together. I'm guessing it will be 2-3 years til things may improve

This story brings back so much anxiety. As an airline employee in Canada working in YYZ as a gate agent and check in agent we lost so much experienced staff during the pandemic. Once the flood gates opened we were like deer in headlights and the company was not able to staff any area adequately. There were so many times when I was boarding a flight at a gate on my own. Most of the time there would be 2-3 agents and it is a wonder that so many of us did not burn out and go on a medical leave. Glad to say things are better now but it did take a very long time to recover. Thanks for sharing this story.

The French ATC are ALWAYS on strike. This often means re-routing flights to avoid French airspace. I notice the researchers didn't bother to mention this.....

I work at one of the airports mentioned on this. One of the biggest issues is PASSES, not to go into too much detail. The airport pass application process is so longwinded and over complicated and causes so much stress and anxiety. I started working via an agency. Now I direct for a company so my pass has to be changed. considering I have a full pass it's taken over 5 weeks to transfer and 3 of those weeks the airport ID centre has been sitting on my application.its not just an isolated issue for me I know about 5 college's in the same situation

The airport even has a scandalous cheek of charging £5 to drop off passengers. How can this have been allowed, a major international airport: shame people don’t boycott the place or as on other countries just riot or drop off on roundabouts until power of the people wins. Glad I’m out of the UK. The quality of the new T2 renovation uses the cheapest materials too and is incorrectly designed for passenger ease. Also as a baggage handler for British Midland over 20 years ago as a student, the management would always come down and help when too many sickness or staff shortages situations arose in the busy summer. Shows how they give a shite today!

It doesn't matter if you hire 4,000+ new baggage handlers when you fire all of your experienced staff. Of course there's gonna be delays until your new staff becomes experienced enough or if you have a high turn over rate on employees you will never be as efficient as you were before the pandemic.

Manchester Airport is an embarrassment.

£9.65p an hour? There's your problem, right there! 🙄

At least we can see that those blokes have zero time to rummage through anyone’s bag lol.

Having spent 23 years in airline industry, mst as cabin crew member, the good imes are now over for staff and passengers. Airlines have taken on the "American ethos" - tif it doesn't make max profit, then forget it. Airfares were once very cheap, but it meant 95-100 of seats had to be filled to cover costs, so say good bye to cheap fares. The airline I worked for now has employees working under 4 contracts, some with crew from other countries, paying basically a bus conductors wage where others are higher, so it causes conflict on some flights when different contacted crews talk about their salaries & conditions, but are doing exactly the same work. Check in staff, baggage handlers, engineering & maintenece staff & cleaner have been hired to do the job, and they keep quitting due to work conditions and Swissport & Dnata along with other emerging companies now do the jobs trained airline staff used to do, without the wage or conditions. If you pay peanuts, you will get monkeys!!!!

Paid absolute peanuts on the ramp as a baggage loader, as Cabin Crew or as Check in and gate agents. Its a career like many others that no one can sustain or live on and those that try either have someone (a partner) that earns substantially more than them or they live in shared accomodation. If they sort the wage out and pay better, these airlines and handlers will get far more interest in their vacancies and maybe even attract previous employers back! I for one left the airport because of these shocking pay packets. I now earn 3 and a half times more in the city than i did at the time working for Servisair at Gatwick and Heathrow, and guess what...i still struggle to get by! WORK THAT ONE OUT!

It didn't take Einstein to work out that sacking people during the pandemic was going to come back to bite companies on the backside when travel restrictions were lifted because of pent up demand. Then trying to get staff to return on reduced wages was always going to compound the issue. Companies are completely to blame for chasing the money and treating staff like slaves.

I totally agree with 'Mikey'! The Covid Situation was an exception to the rule, but I really don't understand how, when we were 'coming out of Covid' that plans weren't immediately put into place to deal with the onslaught of passengers, whilst still offering the same pre Covid service!

I haven't flown anywhere in over two years and won't do any time soon. It's chaos everywhere, no matter where you go. It seems that all the airlines and airports have made the same mistakes. I feel most sorry for the frontline staff, they have to deal with the consequences and it's none of their doing :(

Imagine you order your new car, but on going to collect it the company blames delivery drivers for being on strike, and so you cannot have your car. And NO, you can't get any compensation or refund. THIS IS HOW RIDICULOUS THE AIRLINE INDUSTRY SOUNDED LIKE in this video!

The airline definitely should be held accountable. Hit in the pockets enough times they'll fix something

This is probably an unpopular opinion. But we’ve got ourselves to blame for a large part of this chaos. We all were fine with the low low low cost of flying we were offered. This is the other side of that. Race to the bottom for the cheapest services. All to go on holiday on the cheap…

Rail, water, electricity, airports, broadband, nhs… all should be owned by the British state or at least be overseen by the state. Foreign nations and foreign investment firms shouldn’t control/own our national essentials. Essentials shouldn’t be designed around profit especially when these companies never invest in their own firms.

Manchester Airport was once a jewel in the city’s crown. Epstein sculpture, chandeliers and the thrills of modern jet aircraft. It is now a rather shoddy color ruin of portacabins where the public go to be treated like lab rats and to be shouted at in accents that are difficult to cipher. Fast Track services are often not operating and the waiting areas/food courts are often dirty and close before you’ve returned from trying to find a functioning WC. I’m sure there are worse but apart from Liverpool I just haven’t found it yet.

Remember traveling out of Florence, IT last year and had to endure waiting 2 hours to check in for my flight due to an airport strike at the time. Which meant I missed my original connecting flight in Amsterdam and had to wait 6 hours for the next available one.

Hi Jane the biggest holdup at all the airports has been caused by some bright spark creating the single queue for all passengers. Before, each airline had its own queue for each flight. I can remember flying to Las Vegas a few years ago when this single queue system was introduced and even then the ground hostess were walking along the queue calling out for various flights that were due to go shortly. So even then, this system didn’t work. When are the people in charge going to wake up and sort the queuing system out and revert back to the old system. Also it was very rare for bags to be lost with the old system because the booking in Clark put a tag on each bag when you booked in. This is a case of new system is no good and someone needs a kick up the backside.

I hate flying now. It is a nightmare

We flew to Italy last year with Easy Jet and we did not know until the last minute whether everything was going to be OK. Luckily our flights left on time and my wheelchair user husband had excellent service at both ends at both Gatwick and Milan. I am so glad that we did not fly until August so things had calmed down a bit. We do usually cruise now without flying as it is far easier.

You should investigate the legalised robbery of the car park fees while waiting for baggage that takes hours to be processed in arrivals. I work as a chauffeur and won’t pick up at Manchester airport anymore

And which lawyer/ lawyers or law firm are lobbying for better laws and compensation for passengers who are victims of greedy airline owners and contractors.

British Airways has to be one of the worst offenders when it comes to compensation or rebooking using one of their useless vouchers. Rebooking using a voucher trying to speak to a person which is impossible. Their goal is that people will give up.

To be fair to Easy Jet ive personally never had a problem with them unlike BA and other bigger companies. Side note: I really want Dispatches to go behind the scenes of private nurseries/childcare centres - i worked in a few and some nurseries are just shocking 😢😢

Everybody wants mega cheap weekend return flights to Dubrovnik and Florence and Montpelier etc but nobody ever bothered to think about the long term repercussions of constantly running a service on a shoestring. The wuhan virus simply brutally exposed the weaknesses in this system. Quite why anybody would deliberately choose to fly given the information freely available about these problems is beyond me!

for the standard one week /ten days holiday one should only take one carry on bag... you will never lose it and you will help with this crisis. Another trick is bring a shopping bag full of clothes, buy something from the duty free -not alcohol because they seal it- and just put your stuff in the duty free bag (free carry on bag)

As my flying instructor would always tell me "Time to spare ? Go by Air"

Rob Griggs should be a politician, he talks around everything admitting nothing!

Unfortunately this is not an isolated case but happens at almost every country and airport.

What I learned is that you need a media to help you get the compensation you deserve.

The Directors got to make their millions no matter the cost of other people.

British Airways treated their long serving staff appallingly.. Staff that had given their loyal service over years were just thrown on the heap..

I'm actually not feeling too sorry for the folks having a hard time getting married in Corfu. But it's insane, how skilled workers are getting fired left and right.

My employer has two large offices in the Netherlands and one of our senior directors from there came over to the UK around the time this was filmed. He was truly angry about the situation at Schiphol on his outbound trip and said it was a national embarrassment because the Netherlands shouldn't be like that. Friend of mine says she had similar issues in Barcelona flying back to Glasgow. Also the airports in New Zealand were having trouble coping with demand once the country started to open up again. It's worth pointing these things out to pre-empt the absolute balloons who try to blame everything on Brexit. It's a global problem.

34:20 Break in Amsterdam. I can check within 30 seconds the travel time by train from London to Amsterdam Centraal. It takes between 4 and 5 hrs, there are 4 connections a day two of which are direct. Return the trip takes between 5 and 6hrs. That couple could have been back home in the UK the day of their cancelled flight. No reason to take the plane for such short hops.

Wtf is with all these people paying for a $50 roundtrip ticket with a budget airline out of an airport that caters to budget travel and then are surprised that they have a budget experience?

if theses company's pay staff a good wage then everything would be good, over a 1500 suitcases a shift or more is unreal

Moral of the story - don’t get married abroad

I have friends who spent decades in the aviation industry and quit over covid, because the industry used that time to downgrade their already meagre salaries and conditions further. I am lucky to be in a country with good public transport and have opted for train travel only, since 2019. I will only fly if I ever need to go to the US or Asia, but in Europe I'll use the train! Delays at Deutsche Bahn are also annoying, but it's nothing like this.

Oh gosh...I mean it's been a while since I last flew anywhere & it's probably going to be longer before I ever do again considering how broke I am, but OMG I don't know if I've ever seen an airport that busy at 4am before in my life. I can feel the anxiety by just watching it hahaaa. If I turned up to an airport that early & had to slowly shuffle my way through the queues with that many people I'd have a panic attack without a doubt. Looks horrific & I'm only 4 mins into this video

She’s not normally like this then proceeds to swear shout and call names…. Her friend is exactly like her lol

@35:30 I mean, I know the situation on Schiphol was terrible but A: who doesn't bring some extra medication just in case and furthermore, it's not like there arent doctors or drugstores in the Netherlands that can prescribe you some extra medicine in such a case... also, when my flight between Amsterdam and the UK was cancelled and there wouldnt be another for 2 days, id take a ferry or the train to get home... Apart from having your flight cancelled twice, which is absolutely disgraceful, why aren't people a little more resourceful?

What single traveller need to check in a bag for a shot trip. The carry on limit is perfectly adequate in 90% of cases

You get what you pay for! In the late 80s an average ticket cost around 300 Euro to most destinations in Europe from Stockholm. Now 35 years later I can fly with Wizzair to Poland and back for around 50 Euro as an example. A taxi from the airport to Stockholm city cost at least 60 Euro one way! No wonder they cant pay decent wages.

Absolutely disgusting that all they pay is $9.76 an hour for baggage handlers. I’m in the US and our federal minimum wage is STILL $7.25! Hasn’t went up since 2009!! People refuse to work for that now, so it forced employers to pay more. Most people here won’t work for under $10 an hour now,and at that wage, there better not any physical labor involved. Lol. The baggage handlers in my area start out at $18.00 an hour and larger cities like NY and LA pay them way more than that because the cost of living is higher there. I guess my point is, is you want a good worker, who’s going to be productive and one that will give a shit about the work they do, then pay them accordingly. Pay them a little amount, and you’ll get very little work out of them 🤷‍♀️

We’ll stay in the UK and tour in our little camper van thank you 🛣 To think, I once dated the CEO of Manchester Airport, when he worked in HR at the factory I worked in. Now all he’s doing is sitting behind a desk and collecting his millions of pounds bonus while everyone else is suffering this chaos 😡

11:00 If you can spend on a wedding like that you get no sympathy here.

Flew through Manchester Airport at the end of October on Jet 2 to Malaga. Terminal 2 was really good, very modern and efficient. We had no queues or problems at any point in the journey, and the same when we landed back at Manchester a week later. Obviously, it is not as busy as in the summer when this report was filmed, and we thought it was a very good experience. Hopefully they have got it sorted now. If you live in northern England Manchester is the only airport with a good range of flights to lots of places so you're stuck with it really.

I flew Easyjet to Athens from Gatwick a few days before this journalist did from Manchester and everything went quick and smoothly. It took 10min to check in and 10min to go through security.

I traveled out of MAN September 28th 22. Security was a mess, bags backed up and hundreds of wall to wall passengers. Lost sight of my bag and it took several minutes before it came through the scanner. I did not consider the need to check the contents of my bag and was in a hurry to get out of the cluster and head to the gate. Never had anything stolen by security staff previously. After I returned to the US and was putting my stuff away and realize a large sum of cash my Mom had gifted me was gone from my wallet leaving me about 600 GBP in twenties. Whoever got my cash got a HUGE windfall and I hope, but doubt, a guilty conscience.. They won't let you carry your wallet on your person and I know why! Great bennies for airport security staff. I do believe most of them are honest and take their position seriously. Keep your cash to a minimum going through Manchester..

Well! In 2018, I had to go to Barcelona in emergency, and the only convenient last-minute flight was with Easy Jet. It takes me over an hour to get to the Geneva airport. Once there, I was told my flight was cancelled without any explanation. I never got there on time. I was so furious. The flight wasn't THAT cheap, and I won't go into details about my complaints which never received any response. Those low-cost airlines treat you like cattle. My previous flight with Easy Jet to London was nearly 3 hours delayed. I don't fly Easy Jet anymore. Period.

Jane great documentary - you should go by small boat - no delays!

I work at one of Canadas biggest Airport We are experiencing the EXACT same thing

I am so glad I am not travelling since the pandemic. There are lots of nice places in the UK to explore

They made their billions and what suffers..customer service. Airlines are an absolute disgrace today with customer service at the bottom of the list. Why do companies who become billion dollar industries completely FORGET who is responsible for them making their billions in the first place? We the people can put them back into their moral humble state BY NOT FLYING SO MUCH. Let them suffer for what they've done

My brother-in-law took a post-retirement gig as a Jet Blue gate person. After his training period ended, he only lasted about a month b/c he became tired of the verbal abuse by customers, all for only $16/hr (which these days seems to be around the unofficial minimum wage).

35:22 The delay is bad, don’t get me wrong, but Amsterdam has GPs and A&Es, you know… Even better ones than you can get in the UK, I would argue… Just go and get a prescription if you really need the meds.

The invention of dirt cheap fares has fueled this. Just raise fares to a manageable and profitable level where they don’t have to cut corners and can pay properly to attract enough good staff. Let’s face it - most people will pay more for an air ticket.

My goodness, it’s a bad day if a security check point isn’t passed in 10 mins in Sydney. Melbourne’s not bad either I flew out from London in 2015 to Australia and it was the same thing, less than 10 mins to pass through

Who the duck wants to get paid less than £10hr, for back breaking work AND having no idea where some of the cases should be?! I would love it if the world end up like Star Trek, but we all know it's going to be Star Wars 😪 12:17 WHY didn't they give them any compensation? Like every single flight they booked, no matter who it was with for free AND THEN a goodwill gesture for at least £100 per person for a "sorry for our fuck up" 29:10 Why the duck does she think it's funny?! The staff are going above and beyond n SHE'S (a typical Gen Z) just taking the piss off of them 😡 The most stress she's probably ever had is missing a period.

why are people going abroad for a holiday when they have £0 in their account and have to loan money to pay?

People take the UK for granted , there’s some lovely places to go away to in the UK. I hate airports specifically security as I panic a lot & I hate flying.

42:45 the travel editor said “they dont care about customer care they care about flogging u a cheap ticket” 😳😂

I rely on medication and used to travel often, even back in the day I always carried a week extra just in case. That guy saying he didn't want to carry bulky extras is having a laugh. Shame on BA though, it should be re nationalized.

A system with no accountability is destined to fail

Why have we got people like that in England ,thank you tories,,,,😡

The problem is that passengers want to pay as low as possible for their seat on an aircraft and the Airlines pay for their handling is lower. So the handling agents puts 1 to 2 people in the baggage hall and 3to4 men at the aircraft said and 1 dispatcher 3to4 check-in staff then you got all the equipment you need to work on that flight for the handling agency to make a profit if they put more members of staff per flight handling agency loses money. I worked at Manchester airport for 24y, I’ve seen cheap budget airlines come and go and the job has got harder to do with less men

Seriously increase the wages, conditions and perks of baggage handlers, cleaners and treat them like human beings and your problems will disappear overnight. These passengers flying for a pittance can easily absorb the subsequent fare increase as long as management do not skim off the extra profits for their own greedy selves.