Due to Covid-related absenteeism, British Airways has cancelled four flights at Heathrow Airport today, in addition to the 74 services that were previously canceled.

Following a decision to cut its schedule until the end of May, the airline had previously indicated its intention to cancel the majority of the flights.

However, due to recent high levels of worker absenteeism due to Covid, more flights have been canceled ahead of Easter.

On Wednesday, EasyJet canceled roughly 30 flights at Gatwick Airport.

Thousands of vacationers have had their Easter holidays – the first since the abolition of Covid travel restrictions – postponed or canceled due to a lack of staffing at airlines and airports to match the surge in demand.

Due of Covid absenteeism, BA cancelled six flights at the last minute on Tuesday.

It cancelled 62 scheduled flights on Monday, although 12 of them were grounded at the last minute.

Staff shortages at airports and airlines have been exacerbated by Covid-related absenteeism, and the sector is struggling to fill positions after thousands of jobs were lost and many people quit during the epidemic.

Due to Covid, EasyJet’s personnel absenteeism were quadruple their regular levels.

The biggest routes affected by the cancellations, according to the airline, were Amsterdam, Krakow, Bologna, and Berlin.

Passengers have complained of “chaos” as a result of long lines at security and check-in at various airports due to staff shortages.

Because of the problems at Manchester Airport, Karen Smart, the managing director, announced her resignation on Tuesday.

It comes as Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham suggested that police and fire and rescue personnel could be called in to deal with the pandemonium.

Tim Jeans, the former CEO of Monarch Airlines and currently the director of Cornwall Airport Newquay, told the BBC’s Today programme that the extent of disruption varied across the country.

“The difficulties at Manchester and, to a lesser extent, Heathrow stand out since other airports like Birmingham, Gatwick, Newcastle, and Glasgow haven’t seen the sort of problems Manchester and Heathrow have,” he added.

“The difficulty has been that in a very challenging labor market, you have to prepare to recruit to train many, many months in advance, and it appears that Manchester, for whatever reasons, did not do that.”

Mr Jeans said it takes at least 12 weeks on average to recruit and train additional security personnel, and that “we won’t see a meaningful easing of these challenges until the middle of June.”