Chaos in the UK Aviation Industry: The Background, Quick-Fixes, and Longer-Term Remedies

 

 Despite all the excitement, summer holidays are often stressful at the best of times, requiring strict coordination of tightly scheduled journeys and transfers, added to which are uncertainties concerning the actual state of holiday accommodation on arrival. This year, air travellers’ woes have hit an all-time high, as they face long queues for security check-ins, prolonged waits in airport halls, delayed flight departures, cancelled journeys, and delays in baggage reclaims upon completing their journeys. While the majority of flights departing the UK have left on time, others have either been delayed or cancelled altogether, often without the offer of an alternative flight, leaving thousands of passengers emotionally drained, out of pocket, and unfairly deprived of their long-awaited and already paid-for holidays. 

The first proper summer holiday season after two years of pandemic-related travel restrictions has released much pent-up demand as the economy starts to pick up and people choose to dispose of their lockdown savings, leaving airports and airlines struggling to cope with a spike in passenger numbers. Early warnings of impending chaos were provided by the half-term school holidays and during the Platinum Jubilee bank holiday weekend, when a wrong-footed aviation industry proved unprepared for what was after all a predictable increase in leisure travel during the summer months. 

The chaos at UK airports, which form part of the third largest aviation network in the world (after the US and China), as well as elsewhere in Europe, is widely recognised to have resulted from a mismatch between sharply increased demand for holiday travel and a shortage of staff in the aviation industry. During the Great Resignation of 2021, many airport, airline, and ground handling staff sought greener pastures elsewhere, citing casual contracts, low wages, superadded cuts in take-home pay, unsatisfactory working conditions, disruptive shifts, and poor prospects for career progression as their main concerns. These job losses were compounded by ruthless, and often forced, culls of aviation workers, apparently justified for business reasons by the considerable drop in demand for air travel during the pandemic. Since then, as demand has picked up once again, recruitment to vacant positions remained sluggish, further delayed by time-consuming background checks and security training for airside staff, including cabin crews, as well as for baggage handlers and other key ground staff. At the same time, staff sickness, with COVID-19 or for other reasons, and strike action have further depleted an already shrinking workforce. A shortage of pilots is also being predicted in the near future, in the face of an ageing workforce and barriers to entry related to the high cost of training. 

The Department for Transport announced a 22-point plan on 30 June 2022 to help address the crisis in the aviation industry, covering industry support, passenger support, and recruitment and training support. Many of the recommendations will require time to implement and hence do not provide any quick-fixes. Meanwhile, the UK’s hub airport at London Heathrow has capped passenger numbers at 100,000 a day until September, to better manage demand. This was followed by a one-off Department for Transport amnesty, in place until 5 August 2022, which will allow airline operators to cancel flights and hand back their airport slots if they are not confident in their ability to staff them, without being penalised for doing so.

Delays and cancellations come at a cost. In the UK, according to guidance from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), airlines are required to provide “care and assistance” to affected passengers, in the form of food and drink (often in the form of vouchers to be used at the airport), refunds for the cost of telephone calls, overnight accommodation in a nearby hotel, if required, and transportation between the hotel and airport. Deliberate overbooking on flights means that some passengers may have to be ‘bumped’, or prevented from travelling, either voluntarily or despite their objections. Either way, the airline has to either provide bumped passengers the option of an alternative flight or a refund, as cash or vouchers, for an unused ticket. 

 The complex supply chain for airline travel, much of which has been outsourced, includes sub-contracted check-in staff and baggage handlers, refuellers, aircraft maintenance staff, cleaners, third-party caterers, and airport security staff. This adds to the difficulty of apportioning blame and thereby making successful compensation claims. Furthermore, compensation is only applicable for flight delays of three hours or longer. The amount one is entitled to is determined by the length of the flight. Airlines follow CAA guidance and spokespersons for their official trade body, Airlines UK (which includes both low-cost budget airlines as well as full-service carriers), have been quick to point out that many delays and cancellations of flights are outside of their direct control. An airline is thus unlikely to pay up or provide an alternative flight if it considers the blame to lie elsewhere, such as delays due to security checks, or ‘extraordinary circumstances’, such as extreme weather or strikes by ground staff.  Package holiday customers can potentially suffer the most, as their bookings include hotels, transfers, and holiday events, which are much more difficult to reschedule. It is hence important to ensure that holiday operators are ATOL (Air Travel Organisers’ Licence) holders-ie, members of a well-established consumer protection scheme overseen by the CAA. 

It is recommended that, in the first instance, the claims procedures of airlines or airports are followed, whenever available.  In the absence of a standard claims’ procedure, first contact must ideally be in writing, by email or letter, so that there is a paper trail of all correspondence. Unresolved disputes may require the mediation of alternative dispute resolution bodies (ADRs) or the CAA, if the airline does not belong to an ADR scheme. The final port of call is the small claims court, which adds to the time and expense of pursuing a claim. In some instances, travel insurance providers may also be able to help recoup financial losses, depending upon the terms of the policy taken out. 

Active demand management, including capping passenger numbers, rescheduling flights, cutting back on unprofitable routes, and avoiding overbooking will hopefully help ensure that all booked holiday passengers are able to travel with minimal disruption, if any, just as the airline industry is provided breathing space to sort out its many problems, including an oversupply of tickets, an underprovision of staff, and shortcomings in addressing the needs of dissatisfied customers. Airlines will have to streamline their operations, while their leisure travel customers seek out other, more reliable, options via other modes of transport or as staycations, while the mess is sorted out and a more sustainable, environmentally-friendly, model of airborne travel emerges. 

Ashis Banerjee