Passengers queue at Heathrow
(Picture: AFP via Getty Images)Britain’s embattled aviation bosses were today ordered to sort out chronic staff shortages so passengers can enjoy “hassle-free” travel during the first major holiday getaway since pandemic restrictions were lifted.
Richard Moriarty, chief executive of the Civil Aviation Authority, has written to the heads of airlines and airports urging them “to work closely together to manage the resourcing challenges to ensure that the required capacity levels are achieved, and disruption is kept to a minimum”.
It comes after a week of long queues at check-in and security and hundreds of cancelled flights at the start of the Easter holidays that has already cost the managing director of Manchester airport Karen Smart her job.
Airports are expected to be particularly busy this weekend as thousands of families return from trips over the first week of the school holidays at the same time that many more are flying abroad.
Latest data from analysts Cirium shows that more than 3,700 flights are due to depart London airports this weekend: 1,697 from Heathrow, 983 from Gatwick, 661 from Stansted and 394 from Luton.
The top destination is Dublin, with 263 flights from UK followed by Amsterdam, Malaga and Alicante.
Stansted said it is expecting 240,000 travellers over Easter compared with 8,000 last year. Flight bookings have soared by as much as 70 per cent in weeks since the last of the Covid restrictions were lifted last month.
Aviation sources told the Standard the industry is “several tens of thousands of staff short” with Heathrow alone seeking 12,000 people. Bosses have faced a roller-coaster with many staff let go during the lockdowns, recruitment ramped up last summer and autumn and then stopped again during the Omicron outbreak.
Finding staff has been made more difficult by low unemployment, stiff competition for workers from companies such as Amazon, and a lack of seasonal workers from Europe.
Security clearance for airport and airline workers is also taking “two to three times as long as usual” because of the sheer numbers to be processed.
The situation has been worsened by high levels of Covid sickness, which today led to another 40 easyJet flight cancellations.
BA has also made about 40 pre-planned cancellations due to staff shortages and two because of Covid. Mr Moriarty warned late notice cancellations and “excessive” delays at airports were not only distressing for consumers but could affect confidence just when passengers were returning to flying.
He added: “At at a minimum passengers should be given notice so that they do not travel to airports unnecessarily.”
