Passengers at Manchester airport reported having to wait in queues for four hours today.

Manchester Airport said in a statement that airlines and their ground handlers are experiencing “challenges” which is “leading to delays at check-in and baggage reclaim for some passengers”.

It added: “This is not the experience we want passengers to have at Manchester Airport and we are sorry to hear customers have faced disruption.”

Several social media users suggested the airport was trying to shift the blame for delays, which they claimed were down to staff shortages caused by lay-offs during the pandemic.

Anna Saunders, 41, had booked a week’s getaway in Cyprus with her husband Matthew, 44, and two children from Stansted Airport on Saturday – the children’s first holiday since the Covid-19 pandemic.

On reaching the airport they found their flight with holiday firm TUI was delayed. Soon after, the whole holiday was cancelled.

The firm sent a text message saying the family’s £5,200 trip could not go ahead due to “operational reasons”.

Ms Saunders said her children Eva and Jack, aged 13 and 10, were “heartbroken” to miss out on the mediterranean –they will instead be staying in a friend’s caravan in Cromer, Norfolk for half-term.

She said: “My kids were heartbroken. Explaining to a child that they’re not going on holiday after going through the airport is pretty tough.

“I would be wary to book with TUI again. It wasn’t what we expected. They must have known they couldn’t do the holiday.”

In the previous post [15.48] we reported that scores of passengers had missed flights at Dublin airport over the weekend.

That figure was in fact very short – daa, the airport operator, has said more than 1,000 people missed flights on Sunday alone by early estimate, with that number expected to rise.

Kevin Cullinane, head of communications at daa, told RTE: “At this stage we estimate over 1,000 passengers ... we will be doing a final tally with all our airline partners and customers again this morning to ascertain the final number.

“But certainly at this stage, it’s well over 1,000 passengers, and we unreservedly apologise.”

Airport officials were due to meet Irish transport minister Hildegarde Naughton today to explain what happened over the weekend.

Passengers at Dublin airport were seen singing and yodelling in the check-in queue for German airline Lufthansa.

Delays at Dublin have continued today after a long weekend which saw scores of passengers missing flights.

Delays persist at London Gatwick, according to accounts from social media users.

One Twitter user claimed today they had been waiting more than three hours for airport staff to drop their bags off for a flight.

The Independent learnt yesterday that easyJet had decided to cancel more flights at Gatwick, its biggest base, after a week that saw hundreds of planes grounded.

The airline is cutting 24 flights per day from Saturday 28 May to Monday 6 June inclusive.

The Independent has asked Gatwick for an update on the general situation.

Scenes from Dublin airport this morning after a weekend of delays that led the Irish government to summon aiport managers for a meeting to explain themselves and what they had planned to remedy the situation.

A recent American Airlines flight took 12 hours to fly between Dallas Fort Worth, Texas to Los Angeles, California – a trip that normally takes just over three hours (Helen Coffey writes).

The worst part for frustrated passengers was that their intended destination had been Tokyo.

The 28 May service to the Japanese capital was more than seven hours into its standard route to Narita airport and was flying over the North Pacific Ocean when it was forced to make a U-turn.

Operators at Bristol airport have warned passengers not to arrive too early for their flight as this makes queues longer and adds to delays.

Head of customer operations Richard Thomasson said: “The Bristol airport team and business partners are working hard to ensure all customers have a smooth and easy journey through the terminal.

“For early morning flight departures we are seeing customers arriving five hours prior to flight departure, adding to the congestion in the terminal. This is something we have not experienced before.”

Passengers are advised to check with their airline for the appropriate check-in time.

A man who said he was stuck at Manchester aiport for 11 hours before his flight to Greece was cancelled told the BBC people were “in tears” amid the chaotic scenes.

James Sutton, 50, of Warrington, said he had been due to take off on Sunday on the 07:55 BST flight to Heraklion in Crete.

He said: “It was a shambles. It took nearly three hours just to check-in with our bags.

“When we did get on the flight it couldn’t take off as they didn’t know where anyone’s bags were.”

Mr Sutton added: “After a few hours, the pilot decided to take everyone off and the flight was cancelled.

“There were lots of angry people with many in tears.

“The police came at one point as I think staff were worried it was going to boil over.”

Manchester airport has apologised for the general disruption.

Bristol airport said passengers queued for one and a half hours at security gates this morning.

Delays to security checks have been behind lots of travel chaos in recent months.

Several airports have reported staff shortages as travel picks up from the pandemic nadir.