Travel nightmare is all your fault, minister tells airlines
GRANT Shapps last night told travel chiefs they were to blame for the chaos at airports and ordered them to ‘run services properly’ in time for summer.
The Transport Secretary held crisis talks with 30 bosses in which he said there was ‘no excuse’ for the shambles of recent days that has reduced some passengers to tears.
He said the Government had done its bit and now it was the industry’s responsibility to sort out the mess.
He urged operators hit with the worst disruption ‘to learn from those who ran services smoothly’.
Hundreds of flights have been delayed or cancelled in recent weeks and passengers have endured waits of several hours at check-in gates and in baggage-handling areas.
Others have reported being denied their consumer rights or compensation. Some of the bosses, which included British Airways, easyJet and TUI, used yesterday’s meeting to hit out at ‘hysterical’ media coverage rather than accept responsibility for ruining the holiday dreams of thousands.
Sources last night said the meeting was ‘forthright and at times tense’. One boss accused the Government of ‘throwing the industry under a bus’ after Mr Shapps blamed them for the chaos.
They also moaned about Brexit leading to staff shortages and disruption, with less Europeans now applying for check-in, security and ground-handling roles.
Calls were also repeated for ministers to slash red tape to speed-up background checks which the industry legally must carry out on new recruits. But the proposal, which would involve having direct access to HMRC records, was dismissed weeks ago on data protection grounds.
Checks are currently taking several weeks, during which time prospective recruits drop out after being offered other work. Speaking after the meeting, Mr Shapps said pressure in the jobs market ‘does not excuse poor planning and overbooking flights that they cannot service’.
He added: ‘Both myself and the aviation minister have made the changes needed to allow the sector to prepare for summer but now we need industry to do their bit. We have been crystal clear – run services properly and according to schedule or provide swift, appropriate compensation.
‘We do not want to see a repeat of this over the summer... [We] will be meeting again in the coming weeks to understand the progress that is being made.’
The peak summer season begins next month when school term ends, meaning operators do not have long to rectify the issues.
It came after the Home Office tore into operators for asking police to help clear passengers from flights ‘abandoned’ on the Tarmac due to shortages of ground-handling staff.
There have been at least two incidents at Manchester Airport where TUI sought help from officers to remove hundreds of travellers from planes. A Home Office source said last night: ‘Private companies that have tried to cash in on the first summer of freedom are failing their customers and now they expect the police to pick up the mess.’
And it has emerged that operators are still cashing in by selling cut-price deals for trips over the next few weeks despite cancelling dozens of flights. easyJet was selling seven-night all-inclusive breaks to Tenerife from Gatwick, from where it has cancelled 200 flights this week, from £427 for mid-June.
An IT meltdown involving French-operated passport e-gates sparked delays and huge queues for Eurostar passengers at London’s St Pancras station yesterday. The software problems delayed immigration checks carried out before departure.
‘We do not want to see a repeat’