Passengers queue for flights at Heathrow Airport
(Picture: PA)Britons face up to 18 months of disruption at airports as the travel sector addresses a staffing crisis, the boss of Heathrow has said, as an airline boss warned flight prices could jump by 10 per cent this summer.
John Holland-Kaye, the CEO of Heathrow Airport, claimed it will take “12 to 18 months for the aviation sector to fully recover capacity” as it grapples with a shortage of employees.
His warning comes amid widespread disruption at Britain’s airports, with airlines cancelling hundreds of flights and travellers forced to wait in long queues.
“What we saw in some airports over the past few weeks is that supply and demand were out of balance... we need to make sure we are planning much better,” he told the Financial Times.
The industry is racing to build up capacity ahead of the busy summer season after laying off tens of thousands of workers during the Covid pandemic. However, demand has spiked following the easing of travel restrictions earlier this year – leaving airlines forced to cancel flights due to staff shortages.
The number of passengers Wizz carried more than doubled from 10.2 million to 27.1 million in the year to the end of March, with revenue rising by 125 per cent.
Jozsef Varadi, the boss of Wizz Air, said the price of a plane ticket could jump by as much as 10 per cent this summer as a result of increasing demand.
He warned shareholders that disruption at airports would likely lead to the airline making an operating loss in the first quarter of its financial year.
“Shortages of staff in air traffic control, security and other parts of the supply chain are impacting airlines, our employees and our customers directly,” Mr Varadi said.
Huw Merriman, chairman of the Transport Select Committee in the House of Commons, said that the industry was facing a “perfect storm”.
The Tory MP told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I think there’s been a failure to understand that you can’t just flick a switch and expect the aviation industry to restart.
“They only had the full go-ahead on March 18. There’s a requirement for them to operate 70 per cent of their slots, otherwise they could lose them.”
Ministers had urged the sector to rapidly ramp up capacity to pre-pandemic levels despite knowing it takes three months to recruit and vet new staff, he said.
“As a result, you’ve got the perfect storm where you haven’t got enough staff in a job market where people are already worried about the future of aviation because they’ve lost jobs and it’s been start stop, and also where you’ve got record unemployment levels of 1.2 million job vacancies,” he added.
More than 40,000 workers at Network Rail and 13 train operating companies overwhelmingly voting for industrial action over proposed cuts.
