Major airlines operating in the UK have asked the country's government to relax its post-Brexit immigration rules and give EU aviation workers special visas to relieve the dilemma between increasing market demands and lack of hands available.
In a meeting last Wednesday, Airline chief executives told UK transport secretary Grant Shapps that they could move some of their employees from other European bases to the UK to ease this difficulty if the UK government could facilitate by relaxing the relative immigration policy. However, Secretary Shapps replied that it was unlikely the government would relax immigration rules to help the industry.
Chaos caused by the shortage of staff
The airlines are now in the hot spot. There were 377 flights canceled from UK airports last week to May 31st, according to the data from analytics company Cirium, mainly because they did not have enough hands to conduct their scheduled flights.
In worst cases, passengers witnessed a Tui pilot on the airstrip helping the ground staff load bags onto the airplane; some other passengers said a Vueling flight took off before boarding its passengers due to the ground mismanagement.
Things are not turning better. According to Cirium, there are nearly 10,500 flights (with about 1.9 million seats) planned to depart from UK airports between Thursday and Sunday as the Jubilee long weekend coincides with schools' half-terms. EasyJet and Tui were forced to cancel hundreds of their flights.
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Finger-pointing game starts
As no agreement was made during last Wednesday's meeting, Minister Shapps said the airlines "do not excuse poor planning and overbooking flights that they cannot service."
"The companies who have seen the most disruption need to learn from those who ran services smoothly,"
The reason behind those words is that the airlines let go of tens of thousands of their staff in 2020 after the pandemic. And now they cannot bring them back quickly enough because many employees need to pass strict security background checks before they are allowed to work in the industry.
The unions also pointed out that the reason for the current chaos is that airlines cut too many staffs, which inevitably causes the business with no flexibility to face the rapidly rising demands. Sharon Graham, head of the union Unite, blamed the airlines because they "sacked and slashed wages for thousands of workers without a second thought during the pandemic."
Martin Chalk, head of the pilots' union Balpa, said the industry was "reaping what it sowed," The airlines that stood more closely with their employees during the crisis now face a much more manageable situation.
On the other side, the airline and airport executives were frustrated and angry at the government for blaming them for the chaos.
The first thing airlines highlighted is the lack of time they have to cope with the situation because they "only had weeks to recover" after the travel restrictions were lifted in March.
Also, the airlines pointed out that the aviation industry is a fragile and complex system that operates on the edge of a knife at its best times, and once disruption occurs, the chain of reaction follows.
Jet2 boss Steve Heapy told Travel Weekly that ministers had a "scant" understanding of the industry.
Several major airlines, including easyJet and TUI, said they would cut scheduled flights to adapt their resources and prevent last-minute cancellations. And they presume the situation will continue to the peak summer season.
The chaos is not happening only in the UK, but European-wise. If you are interested in this topic and want more information, please refer to our previous article: Aviation Chaos In Europe: What's The Cause?
Have you recently experienced severe airport delays in the UK? What do you think airlines and airports need to do in the coming peak season? Please share your thoughts in the comments.
Source: Reuters