A staggering 17,000 flights have been cancelled at the last minute this year as the aviation crisis continues to scupper summer holiday plans.

The worst offenders are easyJet and British Airways, which have called off about three out of every 100 of their flights within 72 hours of departure.

Budget airlines Ryanair and Jet2 were among those with fewest cancellations - with just one in every thousand of their flights not taking off, according to research for the BBC's Panorama.

Holidaymakers have faced chaos at airports in recent weeks.

Disruption is set to get worse from this weekend as most school summer holidays begin.

Rory Boland, travel editor of Which?, told Panorama: ‘What's reassuring is that it's not all airlines, it's not all airports. Before you book, take a look around what's happening in the airport near you and the airlines you're considering.'

Airlines UK policy director Rob Griggs told Panorama: ‘I don't think there were wrong decisions made in terms of planning for the summer.

Of course, it might be operationally on the day, different things perhaps could be done in different places.'

Heathrow, the country's biggest airport, has capped passenger numbers at 100,000 per day until September 11, leading to more cancellations.

While some in the industry blame Brexit for making staff shortages worse, the government rejects this, pointing to similar staffing problems at airports in other EU countries.

Aviation Minister Robert Courts MP said: ‘At the end of the day, this is a sector that is privately run, privately owned, privately operated, and it's for them to get into the sector the people they need.'

Panorama: Airport Chaos: What's Gone Wrong?

is on BBC1 at 8.00pm tonight.