THOUSANDS of sunseekers are being warned to expect the worst delays for ten years this summer.

The general secretary of the Association of European Airlines says the situation will be "chaos".

Gatwick Airport is bracing itself for its busiest time of year, with up to 85,000 passengers a day.

But the association's grim prediction raises the spectre of passengers spending the night on airport lounge floors, as happened in 1989.

The association says increased demand for charter flights to Europe will mean inevitable delays.

With more passengers than ever expected to pass through Gatwick there will be longer check-in queues and a larger workload for baggage handlers.

The association deals with scheduled flights, but a spokesman warned charter services could be even more badly hit.

General secretary Karl-Heinz Neumeister said: "This summer is going to be chaos. It will be very, very dramatic."

He is calling for a complete overhaul of European air traffic control systems, but says any overhaul will come too late to help flights this summer.

But a Gatwick spokesman said: "These are rather extreme announcements. We are expecting to deal with more passengers than ever before this summer and we are confident we will be able to cope."

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