Airlines should be fined for refund delays, MPs say

The UK's aviation watchdog should have stronger powers to protect passengers hit by the kind of disruption caused by the pandemic, MPs have recommended.

The sector was hit hard by efforts to tackle the virus, including quarantine, testing regimes and travel bans.

The Civil Aviation Authority should have "more teeth" to be able to fine airlines not giving refunds, a Commons Transport Committee report said.

It also called for ministers to publish an aviation recovery plan by June.

Aviation was one of the industries most affected by measures put in place to stop the spread of coronavirus.

International travel was banned or heavily restricted in the early months of 2020 after the virus began to spread around the globe, and many customers had flights and holidays cancelled.

When travel could resume, passengers were still subject to measures such as Covid testing, quarantine and passenger locator forms.

And the government's traffic light system of categorising overseas countries meant flying into the UK from some destinations was still subject to bans, with changes to the "red list" every few weeks during the latter months of 2021 leaving people having to cancel trips at short notice or head home early.

In its report, UK Aviation: Reform For Take-Off, the Commons committee says that the regulator, the CAA, should be given the power to impose financial penalties on airlines that do not completely refund customers when required to do so by law.

It notes some Ryanair passengers are still waiting for compensation four years after being impacted by a 2018 pilot strike, because of the airline legally challenging CAA enforcement action.

The committee also called for an airline insolvency bill to be introduced in the next session of parliament to better protect consumers, employees and taxpayers.

Paul Smith, Consumer Director at the CAA, said: "We have regularly asked for stronger consumer enforcement powers, including the ability to impose fines on airlines. This would allow us to take faster action when appropriate and bring our powers in line with other sectoral regulators."

The MPs welcomed ministers' pledges to only apply travel restrictions in "extreme circumstances" in future, and said the government "must compensate the industry for the economic loss suffered" if measures impacting the sector were reimposed.

And plans should be established to ensure swift Covid testing is put in place if required by other countries, the MPs said.

"Now that government has removed all coronavirus-related restrictions on international travel, ministers must get on with protecting the sector against future economic shocks," said Huw Merriman, the Transport Committee chairman.

The Conservative MP said the government had faced a difficult situation but some inconsistent policies had left industry and passengers confused.

A report by the National Audit Office last week said there had been no system to assess the success of measures such as the traffic light system, self-isolation, testing, quarantine hotels or passenger locator forms.

After shedding thousands of jobs during the pandemic, the travel industry has struggled to recruit, train and security-check new staff quickly enough to keep up with rebounding demand, leading to lengthy queues at airports as international travel picked up this year.

Tim Alderslade, CEO of Airlines UK, said: "We can't lose sight of the fact the sector has been through its worst ever crisis and it will take several years to deal with the debt airlines had to take on to make it through the pandemic with no passengers."