Agents reported most customers travelled through airports without long delays or cancellations over the busy Easter period, despite news of more queues hitting the national headlines.
It also emerged that aviation minister Robert Courts has proposed streamlining job reference checks on staff by airports and airlines to tackle disruption caused by aviation worker shortages.
Julia Lo Bue-Said, chief executive of Advantage Travel Partnership, said it was “frustrating” for the sector to see scenes of queues at airports but highlighted: “It was not every airport and not all the time.
“Generally, feedback from members over the weekend is that customers have sailed through, but some have had issues.
“If you have booked with a travel agent, you have someone to help you and you’re not hanging on the phone for hours on end.
“I am not concerned about the summer peak season.”
She spoke to media outlets such as Sky News over the bank holiday period to put the delays into context and highlight the benefits of booking with an agent.
A straw poll over the weekend found that about 90% of Advantage members had seen an increase in consumers seeking travel advice from agents after having booked direct.
More: Fall in number of UK flight cancellations and delays
Kirsten Hughes, UK managing director at Travel Counsellors, said: “Whilst the situation seems to vary from airport to airport, we haven’t had any major reports of severe passenger disruption.
“The current situation doesn’t seem to be affecting customer confidence and we are feeling buoyant about the summer season ahead; we have just experienced our most successful March since the start of the pandemic and over 100 Travel Counsellors have recorded their most successful sales month ever.
“When customers book with us they have the added security of knowing they are supported by a trusted travel advisor who is on hand to answer any questions and help deal with any situations that may arise.”
Tui introduced ‘day before’ bag drops at Gatwick and Manchester airport from Tuesday (April 19) to alleviate security queue delays as well as opening check-in as early as possible.
But it came too late to prevent queues of up to 90 minutes at Manchester on Easter Monday.
A Manchester Airports Group spokesperson said the situation will improve with the full opening of Terminal Three on Friday (April 22), twilight bag-drop initiatives and the continuing staff recruitment.
“The reasons we’ve been so high profile at Manchester with this issue…is we are growing back much quicker than other airports,” he added.
Jet2 has been operating its full schedule of flights and holidays, and a spokesperson said: “We have worked hard to plan for the welcome return of international travel. We have invested well ahead of the season to ensure we have adequate resources to operate with our usual levels of customer care, meaning we have not cancelled flights or incurred significant disruption.”
He said Jet2 customer helpers at airports are effective at alleviating disruption and ensuring that operations run as smoothly as possible.
A spokesperson for Gatwick said recruitment is going well at the airport and the majority (95%) of passengers pass through security in under 10 minutes.
Karen Dee, chief executive of the Airport Operators Association, said: “We have been working constructively with the UK government to resolve any delays in the necessary checks before staff can start work without compromising security, to help airports train and deploy staff as quickly as possible to ease any staff shortages and prevent recruits try to find alternative jobs while waiting for their checks to clear.”
Lo Bue-Said added: “It’s important to use this opportunity to talk about the benefits of agents, and about the end goal – the destination and the holiday.”