Asked by
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of
the impact of recent airport delays.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for
Transport () (Con)
My Lords, Ministers have been very clear that the current
situation is unacceptable and that passengers must be properly
compensated where applicable. We are working closely with
industry as it resolves the current issues and today the
Transport Security announced a set of 22 measures that this
Government are taking to support the aviation industry.
(Con)
I am grateful to my noble friend. Responsibility for the chaos
rests primarily with the airports, which are not providing the
necessary support services, and with the airlines, which cannot
provide the flights that people have paid for. To improve the
industry’s response, a fortnight ago my noble friend set up a
strategic risk group to meet weekly. Can she tell the House what
fresh solutions that group is working on to minimise disruption
to holiday travel; in particular, is it looking at lifting the
restrictions on night flights?
(Con)
My noble friend is absolutely right. The strategic risk group is
now well under way. It meets weekly at the highest level. It is a
CEO-level meeting with the Aviation Minister. It is working on
all of the mitigations to the risks as they become higher up the
priority list and therefore more urgent. The 22 measures are some
of the things that have resulted from the strategic risk group
and, indeed, from other conversations that are happening,
particularly on the operational side of matters. On night
flights, the Government are well aware that there is always a
balance between the aviation travelling public and the
communities that live and work near airports. The current rules
extend to October 2025 and the Government have no plans to change
them.
(Lab)
My Lords, is it not about time that the airlines stopped selling
tickets that they cannot deliver? Should they not reduce the
number of sales until they are absolutely certain that they, the
airports, their colleagues and the immigration centre have enough
resources?
(Con)
That is exactly what the Government have said to the aviation
sector. The Government and the CAA wrote to the sector, both the
airports and airlines, to set out the expectations for both over
the summer period. The first of those is that summer schedules
must be reviewed to make sure that they are deliverable. To that
end, the Government are changing the regulations with regard to
slots, to introduce a slot amnesty for a part of the summer.
(Con)
My Lords, is it not time that the Government took some action on
behalf of the airline passengers? If we take the levelling-up
strategy, for example, how can it be right that British Airways
charges more than £500 for an economy return fare from Glasgow or
Edinburgh if it is booked a week in advance? The travelling
public are treated very badly by the airlines. In the past, my
noble friend has rejected Written Questions from me suggesting
that the Government should intervene, which I am sympathetic to,
but this is just simply out of hand. The public are being taken
for fools.
(Con)
I maintain my position on intervening in the price of flights,
but we are absolutely intervening in terms of the standards of
care that passengers receive from the aviation sector. Again, as
I mentioned, in the letter that we have recently written to the
industry, one thing that we made very clear was that passengers
must be informed promptly of their consumer rights. Obviously,
passengers should take those up with the airline itself and then
with the CAA if it is not acceptably resolved with the
airline.
(Lab)
My Lords, as we know, the recent airport delays are undoubtedly a
direct result of opportunistic employers such as BA slashing
jobs, pay and conditions during the pandemic. Now, unfortunately,
we can all see that the chickens are indeed all coming home to
roost, with many airlines too slow to rehire and refusing to
restore wages that were stolen from staff under the cover of
Covid. However, I am pleased to tell the House that, thanks to my
union Unite, members working for CAE cabin crew have now secured
an 18% pay rise—yes, 18%—and £1,200 summer bonus. Does the
Minister agree that BA should follow suit and reverse its 10%
pandemic cut for everyone, not just for management as is
currently the case?
(Con)
As I am sure the noble Lord will not be surprised to learn, the
Government will not get involved in the pay and conditions
discussions within the aviation sector, as it is a private
industry.
(Con)
My Lords, does my noble friend share my frustration that, on
every passenger ticket that is purchased, an airport passenger
tax is taken? The number of passengers who are travelling should
not come as a bolt from the blue, either to the airports or the
airlines. What action is the CAA taking in this regard?
(Con)
I am not entirely sure that I follow my noble friend’s question.
We are taking all sorts of actions, as set out in the 22 measures
that the Government announced today. That is from working with
the ground handlers, where there is an issue with people getting
their suitcases, to working with the airports to ensure they are
able to cope with the number of flights arriving, and the
airlines to ensure that their service is as good as possible and
that they can meet their schedules, not cancel flights at short
notice.
(LD)
My Lords, do the 20-plus measures that the Minister referred to
include additional staff for the Border Force, to make sure that
it always has the capacity to deal with the additional security
requirements that the Minister referred to in her Written Answers
to me, which require the staff to take additional measures and
time? Will there always be efficiency and sufficiency of staff
for the Border Force?
(Con)
Yes, I can absolutely reassure the noble Baroness that we have
established a joint Home Office and DfT ministerial border group
to identify and prepare for the high levels of demand at the UK
border. Over the course of the half-term, the Border Force
deployed extensive plans to ensure that it was able to meet
demand, and the e-gates have been upgraded to make them more
effective.
(Lab)
My Lords, last time we discussed this issue, I commented on the
need for the department to get involved early. In fact, it seems
that the department accepted my advice but did not get round to
it until mid-June. Intervention in aviation is crucial because of
the complex interaction. Can the Minister advise us, first, on
how we will get to know about these 22 measures and perhaps write
to me, listing them and putting a copy in the House? Can she also
explain how a fast-moving industry that traditionally has to plan
day by day can really make an impact with a weekly meeting?
(Con)
Yes, I agree with the noble Lord that it is a very complex
ecosystem, not just within our own borders but internationally.
Issues outside our borders can have quite a significant knock-on
impact. The 22 measures that I have already mentioned today will
be published as a WMS today, but if there is not enough detail
then I will happily write to him with the full detail on what
they are. The noble Lord mentioned the Government not getting
involved. When he looks at the 22 measures, he will see that
there are things that have been in train for a very long time, so
the Government have been working on this over a significant time.
The Government do not intend to get involved in the day-to-day
operations of the airports; these weekly meetings are very much
about taking a medium-term view of emerging risks.
(Lab)
My Lords, is the Minister aware of the increasing use of fast
track by airports, which demands a fee to get through the airport
in a reasonable time? Does she not agree that the airports have a
duty to do that for every passenger, not just for those who pay
an extra fee?
(Con)
I absolutely agree that every passenger should get a good service
at an airport and be able to get through security within
reasonable time. I know that the airports are beefing up their
staffing. The Government have done an enormous amount in this
area as well: we have ensured that UK security vetting now has no
delays; we have also changed the regulations to ensure that
training for these new security staff can start while background
checks are ongoing.
(LD)
My Lords, the chief executive of easyJet has said that one
problem it is suffering is that:
“The pool of people is smaller, it’s just maths. We have had to
turn down a huge number of EU nationals because of Brexit.
Pre-pandemic we would have turned down 2-2.5% because of
nationality issues. Now it’s 35-40%.”
How does the 22-step plan that the Government have produced deal
with these kinds of staffing shortages?
(Con)
The 22 measures include a number of interventions that we can
make to sort the staffing shortages. Obviously, I have mentioned
the changes to the security regulations. We are working alongside
the industry—ultimately this is its issue, which it must deal
with—but we have been very content to support it in terms of
working with the general aviation sector to encourage
communication about careers in it. The Aviation Skills
Recruitment Platform has already been launched and we are working
with students with the Talentview Aviation platform; indeed, we
have 21 aviation ambassadors. There are all sorts of things that
the Government are doing, but I remind the House that this is an
issue that the industry must solve.
