Thousands of easyJet passengers grounded on second day of flight chaos

British Airways and KLM have also made cancellations on Monday, unrelated to Sunday’s air traffic problems over France

As tens of thousands of airline passengers grounded by an air traffic control failure in France try to find alternative routes to their destinations, thousands more have been hit by fresh cancellations.

Britain’s biggest budget airlines, easyJet, was expecting Monday 2 September to be one of the busiest days in its history – with 191,883 passengers expected to travel to, from and within the UK.

But thousands fewer will be carried, as the airline has cancelled at least 20 flights to and from Gatwick airport alone.

Departures to Lisbon, Madrid, Rome and Vienna are among those grounded.

On Sunday, 100 flights to and from Gatwick were cancelled due the French air traffic problem. Many others were grounded at Bristol, Luton, Manchester and Stansted airports, with services to Scottish and Northern Irish airports badly disrupted.

A spokesperson for the airline said: “easyJet can confirm that some of its flights from London Gatwick today, 2 September, are disrupted following yesterday’s French ATC failure.

“For all passengers flying with us today to and from Gatwick, we strongly recommend that they check the status of their flight on our Flight Tracker for real time information before going to the airport.

“Customers on cancelled flights will be given the option of transferring their flight free of charge or receiving a refund. We will also provide hotel rooms and meals for customers who require them.

“Whilst these circumstances are outside of our control, we apologise for the inconvenience caused and would like to reassure customers that we are doing everything possible to minimise the disruption.”

British Airways has also cancelled 16 flights to and from Heathrow and Gatwick airports, including two round-trips between Heathrow and Dublin.

Despite the cancellations, a BA spokesperson said: “We plan to operate our normal schedule today.”

In Amsterdam, a two-hour strike by KLM ground staff belonging to the FNV union has finished – but dozens of flights have been cancelled, including links with Bristol and Edinburgh.

The airline said: “KLM regrets this and will do its utmost to limit the inconvenience.”

Under European air passengers’ rights rules, travellers whose flights are cancelled are entitled to be rebooked on the same day. If the cancelling carrier has no available flights, it must buy a seat on any available airline.