Airlines must review schedules to avoid summer flight chaos, says DfT
Airlines have been told to review their schedules by government to avoid more flight chaos, as airports and unions warned that the problems behind recent cancellations will not be fixed by summer.
The Department for Transport and the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said airlines should ensure flights on sale are “deliverable”, and cancellations should be made “at the earliest possibility”.
A joint letter to the aviation sector said airlines should “take all possible steps to prepare for and manage passenger demand” to “avoid the unacceptable scenes we have recently witnessed”.
It called on airport chief executives to set up working groups with airlines and ground handlers, and report to a new strategic risk group that ministers would chair to scrutinise plans.
The instructions came as aviation industry representatives and consumer groups told MPs that the government should shoulder some of the blame for the recent disruption at airports, with a lack of support to the sector having worsened the staffing problems.
At a hearing of the Commons’ business, energy and industrial strategy committee, Sue Davies, head of consumer rights at Which?, said many customers had been put in an “awful situation” and seen their rights “blatantly flouted” by airlines.
She said: “Both the industry and the government need to shoulder the responsibility for the chaos that we’ve seen. The airlines and the government were encouraging people to travel again, and we think they’ve just underestimated the capacity issues and the shortages.”
Airports, unions and recruiters said the abrupt scrapping of the UK’s stringent Covid-19 travel restrictions, a lack of certainty over jobs and the early end to the furlough scheme had contributed to problems in rehiring.
Read more on theguardian.com
