Airport travel chaos: British Airways and easyJet cancel more flights

A furious row between airlines and the UK Government deepened today as Dominic Raab accused them of failing to heed ministers’ warnings to recruit enough staff – and pointed out they had been given £8billion of support.

As chaos continued at airports across Britain today with 20 per cent of all flights now affected, the Deputy Prime Minister condemned airlines over a ‘lack of preparation’ for the post-pandemic surge in demand from tourists.

British Airways has cancelled at least 124 short-haul flights at London Heathrow Airport today, although said passengers were given advance notice – while easyJet cancelled at least 31 flights at Gatwick, including to destinations such as Bologna, Italy; Barcelona, Spain; Prague, Czech Republic; Krakow, Poland; and Edinburgh.

Amid huge queues at Gatwick, Bristol and Manchester airports today, one easyJet passenger at the latter said the situation was ‘carnage’, saying: ‘Took two hours 45 minutes to get through – most of that was bag drop. Now on the aircraft, but due to shortage of ground crew, there’s going to be another delay of approximately 50 minutes.’

Another easyJet passenger said they had to wait for two hours and 40 minutes to receive their luggage after landing at Gatwick shortly before 3am this morning. He said this was ‘simply not good enough’.

Trade unions and the Labour Party say the Government has failed to provide enough support to the sector. But Mr Raab said Transport Secretary Grant Shapps had been talking to the industry for months about the return in demand, warning that ‘this will come and that you need to make sure that you’ve got your recruitment in place’.

But in a stinging attack on airlines, Mr Raab told Sky News this morning: ‘I don’t think the airline operators have done the recruitment they should have done and taken the advice that the Transport Secretary gave them.’

Mr Shapps has warned tourism firms not to over-book flights and holidays amid fears travel chaos will drag on into summer, saying that scenes over recent days of travellers being reduced to tears ‘must not happen again’. He also accused operators of ‘seriously over-selling’ trips which they could not deliver due to a staff shortage crisis.

Explaining the extent of problems, aviation expert Luke Farajallah from Specialist Aviation Services told LBC radio today: ‘It’s about 20 per cent of flights that are affected across the UK across all airlines and across all airports.’

It comes as one pilot at Manchester Airport was forced to call the police to help hundreds of passengers disembark an ‘abandoned’ plane after they were left sat on the runway for three hours due to staff shortages.

Holidaymakers were left onboard the aircraft on Monday evening, with the Tui flight due to take-off for Tenerife, before officers were called in by the exasperated crew. Families had already been delayed by a few hours in boarding the plane, which was due to depart at 5.50pm, eventually getting into the craft at 7pm.

Ground crew took so long to load luggage that the flight was cancelled, before ‘abandoning’ them. Passengers were then stuck waiting inside the hot plane for three hours before being helped off by police at 10pm. 

Airlines now fear disruption at UK and European airports will continue for months as passenger numbers further ramp up post-pandemic.

According to an internal briefing document, Airlines for Europe – the continent’s largest airline association – expects disruption to drag on ‘for a good chunk of the summer season’.

Experts say it will only be averted if operators offer higher wages and ministers further speed-up the background checks new staff must go through.

Mr Raab told Sky News today: ‘It’s good news that more holidaymakers have got the confidence post-Covid pandemic to say, ‘OK, do you know what, we’re going to book these flights’.

‘There’s obviously been a surge in demand. Throughout the pandemic the Government has provided £8billion of support. There’s been some tweaks to the regulation to make it easier for the airline industry to hire.

‘And I think also there’s clearly been a lack of preparation for that surge back in demand of holidaymakers.

‘And Grant Shapps, the Transport Secretary, has been talking to the industry for months now, saying that this will come and that you need to make sure that you’ve got your recruitment in place.

‘So I know that there’s a bit of finger pointing going on at the moment, but that’s the support and that’s the advice.

‘I don’t think the airline operators have done the recruitment they should have done and taken the advice that the Transport Secretary gave them.’

Mr Raab also said he does not know if aviation bosses are looking to access tax records that would help them to recruit staff more quickly.

He told Sky News: ‘I don’t know the details of that. But I do know that we’ve made some changes on the regulatory front because we know that there’s a demand for recruitment and we want to help the airline industry deal with that.’

It comes after a furious Mr Shapps said last night: ‘It’s been very distressing to see passengers facing yet more disruption at airports – having well-earned holidays cancelled and plans left in disarray.

‘We’ve been clear that industry leaders need to tackle the issues we saw at Easter head-on. Although some steps have been taken, we are still not seeing the progress we need to.’

He added: ‘We will be meeting with airports, airlines and ground handlers again to find out what’s gone wrong and how they are planning to end the current run of cancellations and delays.

‘I also want to be reassured on their plans for the upcoming summer holidays. We need to make sure there is no repeat of the scenes witnessed over the last few days.

‘Despite government warnings, operators seriously oversold flights and holidays relative to their capacity to deliver. This must not happen again and all efforts should be directed at there being no repeat of this over the summer.’

He said the Government had ‘done its part’ by making law changes which allow background checks on new recruits to happen quicker and providing £8billion in support during the pandemic.

The peak summer season begins in six weeks next month when school term ends, meaning operators do not have long to rectify the issues.

The intervention could stoke tensions with the industry after a row broke out with ministers over who was to blame.

Lord Parkinson, the arts minister, said yesterday that the Government had ‘for many months’ been urging the industry to ensure it has enough staff.

MPs also urged the sector to ‘get a grip now’ and called for an investigation into the accusations.

Julian Knight, Tory chairman of the Commons digital, culture, media and sport committee, told the Evening Standard: ‘[The aviation sector] risk harming their industry’s reputation for years to come as well as destroying the holiday plans of thousands of Britons.’

But one airport source hit back, saying: ‘It’s disappointing ministers are now looking to point fingers. Throughout the pandemic, industry warned we needed enough notice of restrictions being lifted to ramp staff back up.

‘In the event, restrictions were lifted in February and March, leaving only a short time to get people recruited, security cleared and trained.’

Explaining the situation today, Mr Farajallah, chief executive of Specialist Aviation Services, told LBC radio: ‘The key for this, number one, is there was no playbook that says this is how you restart after a pandemic, everybody is doing their very best. Airlines are definitely caught up in a three-way problem.

‘One is that a number of the people that they used to employ left the employ of the airlines and airports at the time of the pandemic.

‘Number two, recruiting and rehiring them is going on furiously. I’m also very associated with the recruitment part of the industry, and that’s going on, it is unbelievably strong, the effort that’s going on there. Everybody’s leaning in to get people back into the industry.

‘And the third point is that when you’ve got people, you’ve got to clear them, and there is a huge backlog of getting people security checked and all of the various special licences and special permissions they need to get into the environment that they need to work in which is of course very secure.

‘Now you could argue of course that there is a particular problem this week and how does it come to be that flights are published, sold, passengers booked and then they’re cancelled almost on the day. And I think that’s the bit that has definitely gone wrong from a short-term planning perspective.

‘These flights were made available six months ago, obviously with the best will in the world – the airlines want to fly, they don’t want to be flying people who are then going to be cancelled and claiming compensation. And therefore it doesn’t make any sense to say that the airlines have mismanaged this to that extent.’

As the situation escalated, the Labour Party accused ministers of failing to provide enough support to the aviation sector. Shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh accused the Government of being ‘missing in action’.

‘They should show some responsibility, do their job, and take concrete steps to tackle the chaos growing on their watch,’ she said.

Unite union general secretary Sharon Graham said those in charge of UK aviation companies ‘should hang their heads in shame’.

Garry Graham, deputy general secretary of the Prospect union, said there are staff shortages across the industry, adding: ‘Things could get worse this summer before they get better.’

Rory Boland, editor of consumer magazine Which? Travel, said: ‘The blame game over staff shortages and flight cancellations is no help at all to passengers, who need instant action to bring an end to the airport chaos that is causing so much misery and leaving many people out of pocket, with little hope of getting all their money back.

‘The Government and regulators must take their share of responsibility for creating a situation where airlines feel empowered to treat passengers poorly and ignore their legal obligations to put passengers on alternative flights to their destinations, with other carriers if necessary.

‘Enforcing this rule would help thousands of passengers immediately.’

And Airlines UK, the industry body for carriers including British Airways, easyJet and Jet2, said: ‘Airlines were grounded for almost two years as a result of one of the most restrictive [Covid] travel regimes in the world and with this in mind, the sector has had only a matter of weeks to recover and prepare for one of the busiest summers we’ve seen in many years.

‘Despite this, and without the ability to know when restrictions would be completely removed or predict how much flying would be possible over the summer, the vast majority of the many tens of thousands of UK-departing flights a week will be operating as scheduled.

‘The focus now should be on our customers, with airports, airlines and Government working together in the best interests of Britons to ensure they get away over the summer.’

It came as TUI yesterday became the latest major operator to axe dozens of flights.

The package holiday giant said it was slashing 43 flights a week from Manchester Airport between yesterday and the end of June – a quarter of all flights from the hub.

The move plunged the summer holiday dreams of 37,000 travellers into chaos.

British Airways has already announced it is cutting 16,000 flights, or 8,000 round trips, over the peak summer season, including to hotspots such as Spain and Italy.

Last week easyJet said it was axing 200 flights over the half-term holidays, affecting 30,000 travellers.

Experts predict the disruption will get worse this coming bank holiday weekend, with even more flights scheduled, and could even last into the school summer holidays.

Paul Charles, chief executive of travel consultancy The PC Agency, said: ‘It’s going to be a bumpy path over the next few weeks as there’s no sign of the staff shortages gap being filled at the moment.

‘It needs the government to speed up processing of [security] passes and it needs pay rates to be higher, especially during a period of high inflation.. If those things don’t happen, I think we will see disruption this summer.’

Kully Sandhu, the boss of the Aviation Recruitment Network agency, which has advertised hundreds of sector vacancies, said: ‘There has been high volumes of recruitment and training going on in quarter one and two.

‘But we’re not at 100 per cent capacity and we won’t be all year. It will be better, but there will still be some disruption this summer.’

The Airlines for Europe document, obtained by the Financial Times, blamed higher than normal sickness rates and long waits for new staff to pass background checks for disruption.

The Government streamlined the background checks process this month by allowing firms to contact HMRC for the past-employer records of new recruits.

But industry leaders want to be able to access the records themselves and say doing so could reduce the checks to a matter of minutes.

The Government insists the aviation industry is ‘responsible for making sure they have enough staff’.

A spokesman for the Civil Aviation Authority said the regulator understands the impact of disruption on customers, which is ‘exactly why there are rules in place to protect consumers in these circumstances’.

He went on: ‘We have guidance on cancellations and flight disruption published on our website for consumers, and continue to engage with airlines and airports to remind them of their responsibilities and make sure passenger rights are upheld.’

Meanwhile passengers booked on a Vueling flight from Gatwick were told the plane departed empty because of delays at the West Sussex airport.

Flight VY6209 was due to take off for the Italian city of Florence at 8.20pm on Monday.

But the Airbus A319 – which can carry up to 144 passengers – left nearly two hours late with no-one on board for the 734-mile flight.

Nisha Gupta, 32, from Windsor, Berkshire, was booked on the flight with her husband Ash.

She said they were forced to queue for more than four hours to check in luggage, but when they arrived at the departure gate they were informed no passengers could board the plane due to a staff shortage.

She said: ‘Eventually we were told by staff that the pilots made a decision to fly the plane back empty without a single passenger onboard due to Florence airspace closing.

‘The environmental impact of this is insane and a decision was clearly made to prioritise cost implications over customer experience and environmental impact.

‘Throughout this entire experience, there was a maximum of three staff members dealing with all Vueling flights that day.

‘We got to the airport at 3pm and did not leave until 2am after having to wait around to give details to the one staff member dealing with all cancelled flights, taking details and trying to book people into hotels.

‘No food or drinks were provided at all. Neither were any meal vouchers as per customer rights in the instance of a delay.’

The airline’s passengers at Gatwick continued to face severe difficulties.

One person posted a photograph showing a large crowd of people waiting to check-in, with the caption: ‘Vueling you need to get a grip of this absolute chaos at Gatwick.

‘One member of staff to handle this many people is completely unacceptable. Do you understand the impact this has on people?’

The airline was approached for a comment.

Also this week, holidaymakers Roger and Maria left their Devon home in the early hours for their WizzAir flight to Montenegro – only to find it had been cancelled on arrival.

Roger, who declined to give his surname, said: ‘We’ve basically been abandoned. When we got here we were given a piece of paper explaining it had been cancelled and told to book another flight, but there’s not another one until Thursday. They should’ve cancelled it much sooner rather than leaving us in the lurch.’

Meanwhile there were also separate problems on international trains, with Eurostar passengers forced to wait in a queue which snaked along roads outside London’s St Pancras station yesterday.

Author Svenja O’Donnell, who was among the passengers in the queue, said she had been waiting in the line for nearly three hours for a train to Paris. She said: ‘The queue is through the whole station and down two blocks. We have been given very little information.’

She advised other passenger to ‘stay home’ to avoid the ‘absolute chaos’. At least one train from London to Paris departed with none of its onboard toilets working.

Another Eurostar customer described the situation at St Pancras as a ‘total shambles’, adding: ‘Thousands of people, queues snaking around the station, out into the street and back in again. Shocking mismanagement.’

One traveller complained about ‘waiting outside in the rain’ and there being ‘no clear signs and explanation’.

Eurostar said in a statement: ‘Unfortunately we had a technical fault on a train earlier this morning which meant we had to take it out of service. 

‘As a consequence, there are delays of 30-60 minutes on departure in London St Pancras. Queues are moving and our staff are working hard to look after passengers and ensure their check-in is as smooth as possible.’

All remaining coronavirus restrictions for people entering the UK were lifted on March 18.