Why have flights been cancelled and will problem be fixed by summer?
Hundreds of flights to and from British holiday airports were cancelled last week during half-term for almost all schools in England and Wales – and dozens more due on Monday were cancelled by the airline that normally flies most UK passengers, easyJet.
Not exactly, but the underlying cause remains the same: a lack of staff. Airlines and airports laid off thousands of employees when travel ground to a halt during Covid restrictions and some faced a battle to survive: now airlines are hunting for staff, both to crew planes and particularly for “below wing” roles, such as ground handling.
Security remains massively stretched even if queues have been diminishing over the week. Many hundreds more recruits are joining the industry each month to combat the chaotic scenes seen since Easter around the country, particularly at Manchester airport.
They argue not: the cost and disruption for them and their passengers, plus the reputational damage, mean they have no incentive to sell and cancel. Even last week, cancellations ranged between 1% and 5% of flights easyJet was due to operate. However, British Airways and easyJet have taken some capacity out of the market to shore up resilience, BA in particular pre-emptively cancelling hundreds of flights until October.
For BA, more or less yes: for easyJet, it clearly wasn’t enough. It decided to cancel 24 flights daily in advance during May but last week ended up adding dozens more each day at the last minute, for a variety of reasons.
EasyJet’s “challenging operating environment” has included air traffic control staff sickness affecting Gatwick, its biggest base; storms; and problems mushrooming at airports including Schiphol in Amsterdam, and Luton at the weekend. If all goes to schedule,
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