The chief executive of the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has written to airlines and airports to urge them to take action to reduce the late-notice cancellations and long queues seen in the past week.
Richard Moriarty, who leads the CAA, said in his letter that he had “concerns about the experiences that many consumers flying from the UK have experienced in recent days”.
UK airports have warned about long queues due to a lack of staff, partly due to more employees being off work due to Covid-19, while airlines such as easyJet have also had to cancel hundreds of flights.
Moriarty said: “Instances of late-notice cancellations and excessive delays at airports are not just distressing for affected consumers but have the potential to impact confidence levels across the industry, at just the point when passengers are returning to flying.”
He added that the CAA was aware of the aviation industry having to recruit “large numbers” of new staff as passenger numbers pick up rapidly ahead of the summer season.
“We know that you are working hard to recruit these new colleagues, but it is clear that this has not always happened sufficiently quickly to cope with the increased passenger travel in recent days,” said Moriarty.
“Given the consequences for passengers of cancelled and disrupted journeys, I encourage you to do all you can to ensure that you have the necessary level of appropriately trained and cleared staff resources in place.”
Moriarty urged airlines and airports to “work closely together to manage the resourcing challenges, whatever the cause, to ensure that the required capacity levels are achieved, and disruption is kept to a minimum”.
He added that airlines should be operating “deliverable” schedules given staffing levels and ensure their plans included “resilience for staff sickness”.
Moriarty also reminded airlines of their legal obligation to provide passengers with information about their rights when their flights are disrupted, including providing care and assistance, and offering customers a choice of refund or alternative travel arrangements.
This includes passengers’ right to claim compensation where a flight is cancelled with less than 14 days’ notice and they are not offered rerouting within the required timeframe.