Warning air travel staff issues will last into summeron June 14, 2022 at 2:39 pm

Staff shortages behind recent airport disruption and flight cancellations may not be fixed by the summer, air industry representatives have warned.

The Unite union, Swissport’s UK boss, and the Airport Operators Association told MPs on the Business Committee that shortages were likely to persist.

EasyJet, British Airways and Tui all apologised for recent cancellations.

The airlines told MPs that it was taking a long time for new recruits to get clearance to begin work.

The past few weeks have seen long queues at some airports and hundreds of flight cancellations, causing misery for people whose holidays have been disrupted, and anxiety for people with summer bookings.

Staff shortages have been caused mainly by the Covid pandemic, but also by factors including Brexit shrinking the available labour pool, MPs on the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee were told.

The industry shed thousands of jobs during the pandemic and recruitment has not kept pace with pent-up demand as people book holidays after two summers of Covid restrictions.

Oliver Richardson, national officer for civil air transport at the Unite union, was asked by committee chair Darren Jones whether the situation would be fixed in time for the summer.

“Unless we work together, no,” Mr Richardson said.

Jude Winstanley, UK and Ireland managing director for Swissport UK, agreed with Mr Richardson.

Karen Dee, chief executive of the Airport Operators Association, said: “I hope it will be better, but [it will] not [be] totally fixed.”

Budget airline EasyJet apologised for hundreds of flight cancellations over the recent half term holiday.

Sophie Dekkers, the airline’s chief commercial officer, told MPs: “We haven’t got it right, and we need to get it right”.

She told the hearing that a key challenge was getting recruits through ID checks. Getting passes, she said, was taking 14 weeks.

British Airways said it currently had 3,000 people going through the referencing process, which it said was taking up to 140 days.

BA and holiday company Tui also apologised for the recent disruption.

However, BA declined to link its sacking thousands of staff during the Covid pandemic with its cancellations.

BA has cancelled the most flights recently, travel expert Simon Calder told MPs, followed by EasyJet.

However, nearly all British Airways flights are being cancelled well in advance, which is not the case with EasyJet, he said.

Unite’s Mr Richardson said that the number of cancellations airlines had made “almost exactly corresponds” with how many jobs they cut during the pandemic.

He said Ryanair, which made no compulsory redundancies, is in a “different position from the likes of British Airways”, which has cancelled more than 100 flights per day in recent weeks.

Up to four times as many flights in the UK were cancelled during half term and the Platinum Jubilee weekend as usual, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) told the committee.

Between 2% and 4% of UK flights were cancelled, compared to a “usual run rate of 1%” said Richard Moriarty, the CAA’s chief executive.

The situation was distressing and unacceptable, he said, adding that the industry needed to get a grip and get back to normal levels.

Mr Moriarty noted that other countries had a cancellation rate of 3% and the Netherlands 11% during the same period, adding this was “not solely a UK specific issue”.

Robert Courts, the aviation minister, rebuffed claims that EU workers would help in the staffing crisis.

He said that HGV drivers had been offered up to 5,000 visas, and only 27 came forward.

“If there were spare workers in Europe they would be in Schiphol [Amsterdam airport],” he said.