A consumer rights expert has accused airlines of presiding over a “blatant flouting” of their obligations to passengers following the recent flight chaos which threatens to continue into the summer holiday season.
Sue Davies, head of consumer rights at consumer group Which?, told the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee (BEIS) committee of MPs there were serious, historic, failures over the issue of compliance with passenger rights and compensation and that the industry regulator had proved useless in holding them to account.
She was speaking as the committee conducted a hearing over the recent bout of flight cancellations during the half-term break – many of them at very short notice – as airlines and airports grapple with staff shortages.
There were widespread queues at airports and many frayed tempers, with thousands of passengers learning via text message that their flight would not leave, sometimes hours after the scheduled take-off time.
Ms Davies said of the disruption: “The airlines and the government were encouraging people to travel again, and we think they’ve just underestimated the capacity issues, and the shortages both within the airlines and the airport services, including baggage handlers.”
AdvertisementShe also accused airlines of selling tickets when “they don’t know for sure that those flights are actually going to be able to go”.
British Airways and easyJet, for example, sacked staff despite taxpayer support for wages as the COVID pandemic struck in 2020 – forcing international travel to a halt as lockdowns were imposed.
More from BusinessThe sector as a whole saw tens of thousands of workers also leave of their own free will as flights were grounded and airports resembled ghost towns.
The aviation industry accuses ministers of a failure to communicate over the reopening of the skies, which hampered recruitment.
It has also bemoaned delays of over three months for new staff in securing crucial security clearances.
Karen Dee, the chief executive of the Airport Operators Association industry group, told the committee she could not guarantee that the problems would be fixed in time for the summer holidays. Airlines echoed that sentiment but said every effort was being made.
1:15 ‘We’ll think twice about traveling again’Civil Aviation Authority had proved ‘toothless’
Oliver Richardson, national officer for air transport at the Unite union, told the committee the industry had been too quick to sack people, while many experienced personnel had taken advantage of offers to leave during the public health emergency as the packages were more attractive.
Lisa Tremble, BA’s corporate affairs director, defended its decision to sack more than 10 thousand workers on the grounds that it was losing £20m a day in the spring of 2020 and said the airline and behaved in the “most responsible way possible” at the time.
She said BA was currently seeking 6,000 more personnel and would not confirm, in response to questioning, that it was responsible for its own staffing difficulties now.
Representatives from TUI and easyJet also apologised to customers for the disruption but denied suggestions from consumer groups that their compensation policies covering delays and cancellations were opaque and cumbersome.
Ms Davies from Which? said the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) had proved toothless in its policing of the industry’s obligations.
Watchdog could issue own fines
She told the MPs: “We’re still seeing airlines appearing to book flights, when they don’t know for sure that those flights are actually going to be able to go.
“We’ve seen people given information at very short notice, and haven’t really been given proper information about their rights.
“We feel that obviously there’s some really specific issues at the moment in this case, but this is just symptomatic of some of the issues that we’ve seen in the industry for a long time.
“There’s just blatant flouting of consumer rights and a failure to put passenger interests first.”
Richard Moriarty, the head of the CAA, denied it had failed passengers and cited recent action at the Supreme Court against Ryanair as an example.
But he did admit that its powers “are weak in the modern circumstances” of aviation and welcomed a consultation announced by the government on boosting its ability to hold the industry to account.
That could result in the watchdog being given the power to issue its own fines rather than relying on the courts.