Travellers should not check-in luggage to avoid delays at airports, say industry figures.
Image source, PA Media
Airline passengers should take just one carry-on bag on holiday with them and not check-in luggage to avoid delays, according to industry figures.
The GMB union, which represents aviation workers, said if people don’t check-in luggage it “limits the disruption”.
Hundreds of flights have been cancelled this week due to staff shortages across the sector.
The industry has met with the government to address the problems.
“It is one less thing to worry about. If people can check in online and do not take bags, that limits the disruption,” Andy Prendergast, national secretary of the GMB, told The Daily Telegraph.
“It’s not a magic bullet but it does reduce the chance of there being problems.”
Meanwhile Paul Charles, chief executive of travel consultancy PC Agency, said: “The smaller the bag, the less time you spend in security queues. That would reduce the queues during the busiest weekend of the year so far.”
John Irving, chief executive of Liverpool Airport, said he was not advising travellers to limit their luggage. But he told the BBC’s Today programme: “I think people have to make their own decisions to be honest on what they think is right for them, whether or not that’s carrying hand luggage or getting there three hours earlier than their flight.”
So far, at least 377 flights out of the UK have been cancelled since 25 May, according to flight tracking firm Cirium, affecting thousands of people who booked holidays over the half-term break and the Jubilee bank holiday weekend.
Tui has cancelled six flights a day throughout June and its customers at Manchester Airport have experienced widespread disruption.
Since the outbreak of Covid, the aviation sector has cut thousands of jobs as international travel ground to a halt but is now working to refill the vacancies.
Following a meeting with the travel industry on Wednesday evening, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said he understood the sector’s staffing problems but added it “does not excuse poor planning and overbooking flights that they cannot service”.
He said airline bosses should have been preparing for a “surge in passenger demand following two years of travel closures”.
The BBC understands that at the meeting airlines and airports asked Mr Shapps to add industry workers to the government’s shortage occupation list which would allow them to recruit staff from overseas.
However, Mr Shapps rejected the idea.
David Evans, group joint chief executive of Collinson Group, which operates airport lounges across the UK, said the transport secretary should reconsider.
“I think if we’re going to get levels back to what we expected, if we’re going to get the economy going then we’ve got to look again at bringing in workers from other countries,” he told the BBC.
“The industry has suffered a huge amount of uncertainty throughout Covid – the sort of yoyo-ing of rules and regulations meant that a number of staff left the industry.”