Hello, I'm Simon Caldo, welcoming you to my independent travel podcast, bringing you the latest news on travelling, which today is not at all good, I'm afraid.

Oh dear, oh dear, I'm speaking to you just before 6 o'clock in the evening, and all I seem to have been doing since dawn is looking at EasyJet flights being

cancelled, left, right and centre. It's a really tough time for EasyJet for its excellent team at

Gatwick and every other airport. They're doing their best, but unfortunately, they just don't have the resources, which explains why there was a problem with a number of flights.

I calculated about 18 flights, maybe 20 this morning, mostly to, would you believe, Italian destinations.

Places like Venice, Verona, Palermo in Sicily, all grounded at short notice.

I had a heartbreaking conversation online with somebody who set their heart on a long weekend in Naples. That didn't seem to be

happening. Easy Jet didn't do what they should have done, which said, we're really sorry.

Your six o'clock flight to Naples has gone, but we've booked you at lunchtime from Heathrow on

British Airways or on Alitalia to Rome or Milan and we're going to transfer you from there.

Instead, they went home and that was the end of their weekend.

Now, it got much worse at lunchtime.

I suddenly spotted, because many people are kind enough to get in touch with me,

that there were a lot of cancellations,

actually a huge number at Bristol Airport,

20 that I've counted so far of EasyJet flights.

EasyJet says, we are very sorry,

we've had an IT system failure,

and therefore, well, we've been doing

as much as we can to get things fixed

and that's all very good but unfortunately there are still problems let me read you

exactly their statement easyjet can confirm the earlier IT systems issues have now been rectified.

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