Passengers ‘pretend to be disabled so they can skip queues’
Airport chiefs’ shock claim over half-term delays:
PASSENGERS are pretending to be disabled to avoid horrific queues at airports caused by a shortage of staff.
Bosses at Birmingham airport said there was a 20 per cent rise in people asking for assistance and it has had to buy more wheelchairs and take on extra staff to push them.
An insider at a meeting of industry leaders on Wednesday with Grant Shapps, the Transport Secretary, said: ‘If people are pretending it’s potentially stopping genuinely disabled people from getting a place, and that’s pretty grim.’
The source added: ‘You can’t just say to people “no, you’re lying”.’
Another industry boss said: ‘There should be a special place reserved in hell for people who pretend to be disabled.’
Disabled passengers can skip queues at security and, for a small fee, use fast track lanes and get help through immigration, customs and baggage reclaim.
Hundreds of flights have been delayed or cancelled in recent weeks and passengers have faced waits of several hours in arrivals and departures.
Steve Heapy, the boss of Jet2, said that airports were struggling to recruit staff because people would rather ‘live off benefits and sit on their a **** es’.
The industry wants post-Brexit rules relaxed so that they can hire foreign staff, rather than relying on British applicants who have increasingly missed interviews or failed aptitude tests.
Mr Shapps said the Home Office was unlikely to make an exception for the aviation industry, which he blamed for the problems. Pressure in the jobs market ‘does not excuse poor planning and overbooking flights that they cannot service’, he added.
Yesterday easyJet axed another 36 flights, from Gatwick to places such as Nice, Marseille and Montpellier. That takes its tally of cancelled flights over half-term to more than 200. TUI has cancelled six a day from Manchester until the end of the month, and British Airways has removed 16,000 flights until autumn.
Travel chiefs are braced for more chaos this weekend, with 10,794 flights – carrying 1.9million people – due to take off. Rory Boland, editor of Which? Travel, called for a regulator with ‘real teeth’ so that airlines face proper punishments.
Mr Boland said: ‘The shameful scenes at UK airports this half-term are the result of an industry in which some airlines feel they can get away with ignoring consumer rights and acting with near impunity.
‘It is clear that passenger rights need to be strengthened ... and the Civil Aviation Authority must be given the power to issue direct fines so it can hold airlines to account when they flout the law.’ Michael O’Leary, the boss of Ryanair, told ITV News that the Army should be drafted in to man security desks and thus get rid of the queues.
A Jet2 spokesman said: ‘During a meeting with Government and industry, Mr Heapy expressed his frustrations with the current employment market as Brexit has taken hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people out of the job market.’ He added: ‘To clarify, the other rumours being circulated are categorically not the views of Mr Heapy or our proudly UK-based company.’
Spanish air traffic controllers could heap more misery on holidaymakers by going on strike in a row over staffing. A decision is expected at the end of this month by USCA, a trade union representing 90 per cent of staff.