Carriers told to review schedules Ian Taylor


The Department for Transport and CAA have urged airlines to review their summer flight programmes to ensure schedules are “deliverable” amid the continuing furore over flight cancellations. A senior aviation source


warned of “real problems” this summer without action to quell the disruption, while a second described any estimate of when this would end as a “finger in the air” forecast. CAA chief executive Richard


Moriarty and DfT director general for aviation Rannia Leontaridi demanded “each airline review its plans for the remainder of the summer season”, insisting: “Your schedules must be


based on the resources you and your contractors expect to have available and be resilient for the inevitable operational challenges you will face.” They called for cancellations to


be made “at the earliest opportunity”, passengers to be “promptly communicated with”, and airport chiefs to create “airport partner working groups” with airlines and ground handlers. An airports source said: “The


airlines are not communicating with passengers and not talking to airports. There are serious issues with cancellations on the day of flights, when people are on the aircraft.” The source added: “We continue


to have concerns about ground handlers. If this continues, we’re going


We hope it will


settle down. But anyone saying when is making a finger-in- the-air estimate


to have real problems [this summer].” A second source blamed “a storm


of issues”, noting: “There are air traffic control issues across Europe, staffing issues across Europe, airport handling issues across Europe, plus Ukraine is compressing traffic [over central Europe]. These all have knock-on effects.” The German airport association reported a 20% shortfall in ground


staff “across all locations” last week. The source said: “It should get


better. We hope it will settle down. But anyone saying when is making a finger-in-the-air estimate.” EasyJet blamed “a combination


of issues, including air traffic control restrictions and issues with ground operations at several airports” and said the late cancellation of some flights was due to “air traffic restrictions or strikes causing delays that have an impact on crew operating hours”. Tui UK managing director


Andrew Flintham apologised to customers for cancelling some flights, noting holidays depend on a “complex ecosystem [and] planes can’t take to the skies when the ecosystem is not working”.


Airline chiefs grilled over cancelled flights


Samantha Mayling


Tui, easyJet and British Airways are building “resilience” into their operations to avoid repeating flight cancellations seen at UK airports. Tui and easyJet bosses also


apologised for problems caused by staff shortages as the sector increased services after Covid restrictions were lifted. Representatives from the


carriers appeared this week before a special session of the Business, Energy


4 16 JUNE 2022


and Industrial Strategy committee, held to investigate the problems. Asked about plans for flights in


July and August, David Burling, chief executive for markets and airlines at Tui, said: “I am absolutely confident that we are putting every effort in to minimise what we can, but we don’t control every element of the system. “If there are strikes or major air


traffic control problems then that would affect every airline.” Sophie Dekkers, easyJet chief commercial officer, said the airline


Sophie David Burling, Tui


was “building a buffer” against external factors, based on lessons learnt over the past few weeks. BA’s chief corporate affairs and


sustainability director, Lisa Tremble, said her airline is “galvanised” to build resilience into the system. However, when representatives of


ground handler Swissport, aviation recruitment firm VHR and union Unite were asked if problems would be fixed by the summer, they said “not unless we work together”. Burling said Tui had created


a “firebreak” by pre-emptively cancelling Manchester flights and had contracted extra aircraft, crew and


Dekkers, easyJet


Lisa Tremble, BA


customer service representatives. Tremble said BA had received


42,000 job applications, with 2,000 now in the business and 3,000 going through the reference process, which is taking 70-140 days. In May, it decided to cut 10% of its schedule, equating to about 80 flights a day. Committee chair Darren Jones


MP asked why easyJet had fared worst for on-the-day cancellations in its consumer survey. Dekkers said it had operated 1,682 flights the previous day, with just 10 cancelled. EasyJet has reduced capacity to get more crew in its standby pool and is making pre- emptive cancellations.


travelweekly.co.uk


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48