The Sunday Telegraph

Ministers blame ‘unprepared’ airports for travel chaos

- By Patrick Sawer and Tony Diver

MINISTERS have accused the travel industry of failing to prepare for a postCovid upsurge in demand that has led to continuing delays at airports.

Thousands of people heading abroad for the Easter holidays have been warned they face long queues, delays and cancellati­ons.

Manchester Airport has warned that long waits at security could continue as it struggles with staff shortages, with some passengers facing queues of 60 to 90 minutes over the next few weeks.

But ministers yesterday blamed the travel industry for cutting thousands of jobs during the pandemic without planning for a return to higher demand.

The aviation industry is suffering from difficulti­es recruiting staff and waiting for security checks to be passed on new employees.

Labour has urged ministers to prioritise staff at Manchester and other major airports for Home Office security checks so they can start work soon.

But a government source said: “In part, I think this might be the travel industry trying to blame someone else for their own problems with absences created by Covid and how they treated their staff during the pandemic.” Another government source added: “A lot of people were laid off despite furlough so you suddenly have a bow wave of vetting. I’m surprised they have been caught unawares with the volume of passengers, because you would expect with all these [restrictio­ns], that people having not gone abroad for ages would really be in the mood to travel.

“But even if you know it’s coming, it doesn’t just mean you can just re-create a workforce. It’s a massive surge in capacity. You’ve got to get them checked before you bring them on.”

Airport operators hit back, saying that they could not recruit while travel restrictio­ns were in place and that a rise in demand from travellers when they were fully lifted last month, along with a backlog in security vetting and competitio­n for labour from other industries, had created a “perfect storm”.

It is understood that it can take up to six months for security clearance to be issued to new airport staff by the Cabinet Office, with some of those waiting getting jobs in other sectors.

Ken O’Toole, the deputy chief executive of Manchester Airports Group, said the speed the travel industry had recovered had taken Manchester Airport by surprise, leaving it short-staffed. He added that 220 new staff who have been recruited were being trained and would start work over the coming weeks.

Karen Dee, chief executive of the Airport Operators Associatio­n, said: “This surge in bookings was driven by government removing the final [travel] restrictio­ns as recently as 18 March.”

People travelling to France via the Channel Tunnel were advised yesterday to bring food and drink as lengthy queues continued at the Port of Dover.

Toby Howe, tactical lead at the Kent Resilience Forum, advised travellers to France to “allow a lot of extra time”.

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