Air travel in the UK faces serious disruption

Dozens of flights have been cancelled yesterday, as the air travel crisis in the UK continues.

According to the Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, the current disruption comes as the aviation industry was left with less employees due to the recent pandemic. Nevertheless, he said airlines should compensate passengers and should not oversell flights, especially because many travellers had plans for half-term holidays these days.

EasyJet, for example, has cancelled as much as 80 flights, "due to the ongoing challenging operating environment".

"We are very sorry and fully understand the disruption this will have caused for our customers," the airline commented, while extending customer service operations in the attempt to help affected passengers.

On the other hand, the Transport Secretary added:

"When someone has bought a ticket for a flight, they've every right to expect that flight will take off, and not find that flight has been cancelled.

"Airlines should be cautious about not overselling those flights, [and] where there are problems they need to fix them quickly."

The request comes as the UK government granted £8bn in support for the aviation industry during the Covid-19 pandemic, but the airlines "cut too deep" into their personnel and were “taken by surprise by the way in which people have returned to travel after two years of being locked down."

Shapps added that a "Delay Repay" train system should be also applied for airlines. Nevertheless, he does not think that relaxing the immigration policy will solve the staff shortages of the industry.

A total of 82 flights were cancelled on Sunday. EasyJet, Wizz Air, British Airways and Vueling are among the affected airlines, while flight disruptions from destinations such as Barcelona, Nice, Madrid, Belfast, Geneva, Corfu, Faro and Glasgow severely interfered with the passengers’ vacation plans.

British Airways did not issue any comments on the situation, but Wizz Air representatives declared that air traffic control staff shortages, ground operations and airport security were the main causes for the chaos created, and offered passenger support at all times, including a full refund.

As for now, the airport in Gatwick is "operating normally", but is further expecting more disruption in the days to come.

 

Source: bbc.com