Holiday hell
The chaos in Britain’s airports last week must rank as one of the travel industry’s “most predictable, infuriating and unnecessary failures” in recent memory, said The Times. Airports and airlines had months to prepare for what was “obviously” going to be a very busy half-term and jubilee week. Even so, there were queues stretching out of terminal buildings, long delays at security and very large numbers of cancellations, with easyJet, British Airways and Tui particularly badly affected. Over 300 flights out of the UK and nearly 200 return flights were cancelled over the jubilee weekend alone. Passengers were sent last-minute texts to tell them that their long-awaited holidays had been cancelled, and turfed off planes they had already boarded. Countless families were stranded abroad. The Government deemed the situation “unacceptable”. Airline bosses tried to deflect the blame, citing a surge in demand, and a lack of staff exacerbated by Brexit and delays in gaining security clearance.
The airlines have only themselves to blame, said David Churchill in the Daily Mail. British Airways axed more than 10,000 staff during the pandemic. About 45,000 jobs were lost across the sector – though the Government paid billions into a furlough scheme designed to save jobs. It’s no coincidence that those struggling most are the ones “who cut staff most aggressively” – British Airways and easyJet, rather than Ryanair and Virgin. They also scheduled too many flights after restrictions were dropped, having gambled that they could recruit new staff quickly. But getting security clearance for aviation staff, which is a slow process at the best of times, is now taking at least five weeks. Kully Sandhu of the Aviation Recruitment Network thinks the problems will last a year, and that summer holidays will face severe disruption. It’s amazing that this shambles could drag on through the summer, said The Sun. “Just how long do airlines and airports need to get their house in order?”
Hiring pilots and cabin crew is tricky, but manageable, said Cat Rutter Pooley in the FT. The real problem “is in the unglamorous ancillary roles: check-in staff, baggage handlers, the people who put the steps out on the tarmac.” Thirty years ago, these roles were performed by airline staff. Now they’re outsourced to operators such as Swissport and Menzies Aviation, which pay wages similar to Amazon or Aldi, despite the antisocial shifts; and vacancies in low-skilled roles are currently running very high. Pay and conditions will have to be improved. Obviously, people are furious when their holidays are wrecked, said Hannah Fearn on The Independent. But we ought to remember that there’s a bigger picture here. Most travel companies have faced near-collapse since 2020. It’s been hard for them to plan ahead, with endless post-Covid “false starts”. The pandemic has caused chaos across the whole economy; this is more complex than a mere “balls-up on the part of the travel industry”.