Flight cancellations around the world are causing havoc for crew changes in the North Sea oil and gas industry.
Some offshore workers are unable to make their shifts because they are caught up in the chaos returning from holidays.
Staff shortages and technical woes have led to delays and cancellations to flights around the world in recent weeks.
Countless aircraft have been left out of position, adding to the travel woes of leisure and business passengers alike.
Many airports, including Aberdeen, have suffered massive congestion as the volume of people facing delays builds up.
British Airways is offering new cabin crew a £1,000 “golden hello” in an attempt to tackle widespread disruption to its services.
Murray Burnett, managing director of Aberdeen firm Munro’s Travel, said the pandemonium meant increased costs and most likely more down time in the energy and marine sectors.
“The impact of the multiple flight cancellations has been felt across our entire business and has caused huge disruption and additional costs to our clients,” he added.
“But the real impact for the energy and marine sectors is in interruptions to crew rotations and any down time which is caused by the unexpected last-minute cancellations of flights.”
Mr Burnett said: “This is seriously interrupting scheduled offshore crew rotations plus the cancellations have delayed crew members returning from family holidays – which has resulted in some crew missing their planned rotation offshore.”
The flight cancellations and delays in airports are widely expected to continue for months.