TRAVEL NEWS
Airlines ordered to cancel flights from the UK
amid ‘unacceptable’ travel chaos
By Rosie
Frost & Charlotte Elton •
Updated: 15/06/2022 - 14:27
The UK
government has ordered airlines to cancel flights now, rather than later, to
prevent last minute misery for travellers.
The demand
comes after weeks of chaos across European airports, with thousands of
holidaymakers facing delays, queues and cancellations.
In an open
letter to airlines, The Department for Transport (DfT) and Civil Aviation
Authority (CAA) have warned carriers to trim schedules.
“Your
schedules must be based on the resources you and your contractors expect to
have available,” writes Richard Moriarty, chief executive of the CAA, and
Rannia Leontaridi, director-general for aviation at the DfT, write.
“(We
recommend) cancellations at the earliest possibility to deliver a more robust
schedule are better for consumers than late-notice on-the-day cancellations.”
Many
carriers have already slashed summer flight schedules to deal with
understaffing. British Airways was recently forced to cancel 8,000 flights in
its March-October schedule, while EasyJet has cut roughly 40 flights per day
for the rest of the month.
The
government’s instruction could mean further cancellations for Britons
travelling in July, August, and September.
They are
entitled to choose other departures - at the cost of the airline - or cancel
and receive reimbursement.
How bad is
the chaos facing British airlines?
Continuing
airport chaos is still affecting thousands of British travellers with more
widespread flight cancellations.
Yesterday,
EasyJet confirmed it had cancelled all flights from the UK to Hurghada in Egypt
until the end of July.
The airline
apologised to travellers, blaming “industry-wide operational issues” for the
decision.
Last
week,Aviation strikes in Italy forced Ryanair and Jet2 having to cancel flights
to the country.
The chaos
came to a head at the end of the half-term holiday.
During this
bank holiday weekend, almost 200 flights into UK airports were cancelled from
airlines including easyJet, British Airways and Wizz Air leaving passengers
stuck abroad.
British
Airways has also axed hundreds of short-haul flights, stressing that passengers
affected were given advanced notice as these were part of a schedule reduction
in place until October.
Further
cancellations have added to the ongoing chaos leaving questions about whether
the industry will be ready for the summer season.
Even
without the scrapped flights, many travellers are facing long queues at
security, baggage check-in and when reclaiming their luggage. Aviation bosses
have blamed ongoing staff shortages and bad weather over the weekend for the
disruption.
"Our
expectation is that you and all those involved in delivering aviation services
will take all possible steps to prepare for and manage passenger demand that helps
to avoid the unacceptable scenes we have recently witnessed."
London
mayor Sadiq Khan said that Brexit was to blame for the chaos at Britain’s
airports. He called on the government to relax immigration rules so that
airport and airline workers from the EU could return to the UK and avoid a
summer of travel “misery.”
But
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps rejected the claims saying opening the door to
“cheap” foreign workers wasn’t the answer to relieving the pressure on the
aviation sector.
He instead
put the blame on industry bosses who he accused of “cutting too far” during the
pandemic and not anticipating that so many people would return to international
travel when restrictions were eased.
Shapps said
that he will “do absolutely everything possible to make sure” that people can
go abroad this summer without facing issues at airports. He added that he had
already answered calls from the industry to speed up security checks for new
staff and allow those in non-security related jobs to start training
immediately.
A
government and aviation industry working group has been formed ahead of the
summer holidays to try and tackle delays and cancellations.
The
Transport Secretary also said that holidaymakers should get automatic refunds
for cancelled foreign holidays - much like they do for delayed domestic trains
in the UK.
Speaking to
the BBC’s Sunday Morning programme earlier this month, he called for changes to
allow “proper disputes resolution” with “quick and straightforward
compensation” or a different flight.
“It can’t
be acceptable that it is so complicated sometimes to get a flight rearranged or
to get your money back. I want it to be more like [how the national scheme]
‘delay repay’ works on trains, where it is an automated process.”
Are there
too many planes in European skies?
Earlier
this month, Europe’s air traffic agency warned that the number of flights in
the coming months is likely to exceed the capacity of control centres. The
problem is worse in Munich, Reims in France and Athens.
But
according to Eurocontrol, much of Europe is now operating close to capacity
with the agency urging countries to review their operations or face more sudden
disruption this summer.
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