Traffic jams on the road to the Port of Dover on April 8, 2022 near Lenham, UK (AFP/Ben Stansall)
Between storm at sea and shortage of ferries, travelers wishing to cross the Channel on Saturday to go to France from the United Kingdom were called upon to arm themselves with patience while traffic jams multiplied around the British port of Dover.
“Be sure to bring food and drink as there are going to be delays,” authorities in Kent, southeast England, have warned as queues cross the English Channel stretched across the region on Saturday.
Between a storm and the shortage of ferries linked to the layoff in mid-March, overnight, of 800 employees of the shipping company P&O, “everything has accumulated”, said Saturday on the BBC Toby Howe, a Kent official ResilienceForum.
“Yes, we had the problems with P&O. Then we had a storm at sea which meant that many boats could not cross that night,” he said, adding that problems with customs , frequent since Brexit, had also slowed the pace of crossings.
The chaos comes amid the UK’s Easter holidays, the first since the country lifted its coronavirus pandemic restrictions.
Holiday departures were also disrupted at several airports in the United Kingdom, notably in Manchester, in the north-west of England.
Many flights have been canceled due to a staff shortage linked to mass layoffs during the pandemic, aggravated by cases of Covid-19 among airline employees, including EasyJet.
© 2022 AFP
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