Aviation staff shortages likely to continue, industry says

Staff shortages behind recent airport disruption and flight cancellations may not be fixed by the summer, air industry representatives have warned.

The Unite union, Swissport's UK boss, and the Airport Operators Association told MPs on the Business Committee that shortages were likely to persist.

The recent flight cancellations were largely down to staff shortages across the sector, they said.

EasyJet, British Airways and Tui all apologised for the disruption.

The past few weeks have seen long queues at some airports and hundreds of flight cancellations, causing misery for people whose holidays have been disrupted, and anxiety for people with summer bookings.

Staff shortages have been caused mainly by the Covid pandemic, but also by factors including Brexit shrinking the available labour pool, MPs on the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee were told.

The industry shed thousands of jobs during the pandemic and recruitment has not kept pace with pent-up demand as people book holidays after two summers of Covid restrictions.

Oliver Richardson, national officer for civil air transport at the Unite union, was asked by committee chair Darren Jones whether the situation would be fixed in time for the summer.

"Unless we work together, no," Mr Richardson said.

Jude Winstanley, UK and Ireland managing director for Swissport UK, agreed with Mr Richardson.

Karen Dee, chief executive of the Airport Operators Association, said: "I hope it will be better, but [it will] not [be] totally fixed."

Budget airline EasyJet apologised for hundreds of flight cancellations over the recent half term holiday.

Sophie Dekkers, the airline's chief commercial officer, told MPs: "We haven't got it right, and we need to get it right".

She told the hearing that a key challenge was getting recruits through ID checks. Getting passes, she said, was taking 14 weeks.

British Airways said it currently had 3,000 people going through the referencing process, which it said was taking up to 140 days.

BA and holiday company Tui also apologised for the recent disruption.

However, BA declined to link its sacking thousands of staff during the Covid pandemic with its cancellations.

BA has cancelled the most flights recently, travel expert Simon Calder told MPs, followed by EasyJet.

However, nearly all British Airways flights are being cancelled well in advance, which is not the case with EasyJet, he said.