Flight cancellations – can there be anymore bad news?

Flight cancellations – can there be anymore bad news?

If we had not all thought that the Covid-19 pandemic had damaged our travel industry enough then the news each day of more and more flight cancellations is depressing. And many are feeling it really shouldn’t be like this as there is clear and substantial pent-up demand for travel across all generations.

Figures from travel data analyst, Cirium, reveal the airlines which recorded the highest volume of cancellations for departures from UK airports in June, which included the half-term break and the Jubilee bank holiday, were EasyJet and British Airways with Ryanair and TUI cancelling far less flights overall.  

In terms of airports, it appears that Gatwick airport has fared the worst in June 2022 with 430 cancellations out of approximately 11,000 scheduled departures making it have a cancellation rate of 3.81 of all flights scheduled at the airport. That figure accounts for almost a quarter of the total number of flight cancellations across the country in June. Sadly, Gatwick also appears to have the longest flight delays in June 2022 closely followed by Bristol Airport.   

Heathrow has said it has seen 40 years of passenger growth in just four months as air travel bounces back from the covid-19 pandemic. But now we are seeing Heathrow asking airlines to stop selling further summer flights and seeking to introduce a cap on the number of passengers at 100,000 departing the airport daily.  

The Chief Executive has indicated that the reasons for putting a cap on passengers was because they were seeing periods when service was dropping to unacceptable levels with long queuing at times, delays for passengers needing assistance, late or lost baggage, low punctuality and last minute cancellations.  

Interestingly this week Emirates say they reject these demands from Heathrow and plan to operate as scheduled. Emirates argue they are "fully ready and capable of handling our flights" and suggest that "the crux of the issue lies with the central services and systems which are the responsibility of the airport operator". There is now the possibility of legal action, and it is clear that there has been a significant breakdown in relationships between the airports and some of the carriers themselves.

There were significant issues at Manchester Airport where in late June the Manchester Evening News lamented a "summer of travel chaos" at the city's airport describing scenes of queues snaking from Terminal 2 and stretching along the walkway towards Terminal 1. It was a continuation of issues for the airport leading on from problems reported during spring and continuing at the end of May during half-term with travellers facing cancelled flights, lost baggage and delays including flights which boarded but simply did not take off.  

Other statistics indicate that Ryanair seem to have been the best performing airline worldwide with only 0.3% of flights being cancelled whereas BA appear as one of the worst at 3.5%.  

Problems have not been limited to one or two airports or airlines however, and cancellations, delays, and luggage issues are a huge problem for the travel industry overall.

We know that over the several lockdowns, many staff were let go and others simply left, took up other jobs and have not returned. Heathrow airport started recruiting more staff towards the end of 2021 and says that by the end of July it will have as many people working in security as before the pandemic. Other airports have done the same but the fact that airlines and airports both laid off tens of thousands of staff during the pandemic means that significant numbers of those staff have not returned, so recruitment and training remain key issues.  

Both airports and airlines are left with shortages of critical staff in particular ground handlers and new staff are not necessarily up-to-speed in their training.  

The Airport Operators Association ("AOA") has discussed the concept of a week of aviation recruitment events under the ‘Generation Aviation’ banner with DfT and DWP. This is aimed at enthusing people about coming to work in the industry.  

The scale of the issue is huge – airports are struggling to cope with the return to pre-pandemic travel habits, with Heathrow reporting that 6 million passengers travelled through the airport in June and 25 million in the first six months of 2022. That compares with only 19.4 million passengers across the whole of 2021.  

There are significant knock-on effects across the travel industry whether in terms of cost, reputational damage and loss of trust.

Where flights are cancelled, or significantly delayed, then airlines are presently under an obligation to refund, provide compensation and/or place passengers on alternative flights. The measures that airlines have to take depend on the circumstances of each particular flight.  

Where passengers are delayed, lose their luggage or find that luggage arrives several days late, then travel insurers often find themselves faced with claims or assistance needs in the first instance, although they may be able to recover some of those costs further down the line against the airlines.  

Travel is a potentially stressful activity in the best of times, and travellers generally want a positive experience from their airport, airline and finally their well deserved holiday. They want to travel safely, securely and with some degree of optimism that their flight will not be cancelled at the last minute or delayed significantly. We are in what should be a fortunate situation for the industry of huge pent-up demand following the pandemic, but where trust and optimism is shattered then that demand may start to evaporate, particularly when taken alongside financial worries and concerns as to war in eastern Europe.  

It would be a great pity if the opportunities to make the most of this pent up demand were to be lost.