Asked by
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to
ensure that (1) airports, and (2) airlines, in the United Kingdom
have enough staff to ensure that British holidaymakers do not
have their holidays cancelled or delayed this summer.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for
Transport () (Con)
My Lords, on 30 June, the Secretary of State announced 22
measures which the Government are currently taking to support the
aviation industry to help recruit and train staff, ensure the
delivery of a realistic summer schedule, minimise disruption and
support passengers when delays and cancellations are unavoidable.
The Government recognise that these issues are primarily for
industry to solve, but this series of targeted measures will
support its efforts.
(Lab)
My Lords, I wonder if the Minister saw last night’s
“Panorama”—not that I instigated its being shown before my
Question or its being about this issue. A list of things is
responsible: Covid, staff shortages, security, air traffic
control, baggage handling, check-in staff, passport control, even
Brexit. A lot of people in this country are planning to have
holidays but are worried about the insecurity and uncertainty.
Just on my way in, I was talking to a Member of this House who
said that he and his family want to go on holiday, “if we can get
away”. Surely we can do better than that.
(Con)
I did not manage to see the “Panorama” programme last night, but
I saw some highlights today and I recognise some of the issues
that the noble Lord pointed out. As I said in my Answer, this is
for the private sector to resolve. However, we have been working
with the aviation industry on this for months to make sure that
we are giving it all the support we can, so that it can offer
consumers the sorts of timetable that can actually be
delivered.
(CB)
My Lords, does the Minister agree that the Heathrow monopoly is
in the hands of owners who put the interests of shareholders far
ahead of customers? Dividends of £4 billion have been drawn out
in the last 10 years and the airport has been saddled with £16
billion of debt. Now it wants the regulator to approve hikes in
passenger charges of well over 50%, in the midst of the most
abject and abysmal service.
(Con)
I reject the noble Lord’s comment that London Heathrow has a
monopoly. There are eight slot-restricted airports in England and
many other airports beyond that. I simply say to airlines: if you
do not like Heathrow, go elsewhere.
(LD)
My Lords, is the noble Baroness aware that airline staff flying
into the EU now need their travel documents to be stamped? I am
sure she is, but is she aware that staff are reporting a
potential crunch coming down the track in August, as their
documents will be full of stamps and will therefore have to be
renewed, with consequent delays? What are the Government doing to
expedite that?
(Con)
I thank the noble Baroness for raising that. I am not aware of
that issue, so will take it back to the department.
(Con)
Apropos the previous question, does my noble friend agree, as was
my recent experience, that flying from and to Bournemouth
international airport is perfectly wonderful? It works like
clockwork.
(Con)
I have heard my noble friend wax lyrical about the wonders of
Bournemouth Airport, and there are many other airports like that
around the country. I encourage everybody to look at those
smaller airports; you often might get a better service.
(Lab)
My Lords, the noble Baroness often says, as she said today, that
this is for the private sector. Heathrow is ultimately a monopoly
licensed by the state. There is not lots of competition out
there; everything that is capable of managing significant
international traffic is full. The Government are responsible for
Heathrow’s performance. They are responsible for the common good;
that is what Governments are for. They seem to agree with me: as
of 12 July, the strategic risk group has met five times, the
summer resilience group four times, and the ministerial border
group four times. According to its chief executive, Heathrow is
improving. This shows that the Government have intervened and had
a benign effect. I congratulate them, but why did they not
intervene sooner and save passengers from the misery they have
suffered?
(Con)
I am incredibly happy to accept the congratulations of the noble
Lord, . We have worked with the
aviation sector incredibly hard to try to minimise the disruption
that happened at half-term as we go into the summer period. He
asked why it took so long, but we have been working on this for
months. For example, we changed the law so that training could
start before certain checks had been completed. We laid that
statutory instrument on 29 April. Statutory instruments do not
just appear in order to be laid; they are the subject of weeks of
work. We have been working very closely with the sector, and the
Civil Service has been working extremely closely and very hard on
all these measures. As he said, they are having an impact.
The (CB)
My Lords, while there are pandemic-related staff shortages across
the whole of Europe, is a large part of the problem in the UK not
Brexit-related, as evidenced by the piece in the Times last week
by the head of Menzies Aviation? He added his voice to that of
the head of easyJet, which has had to turn down thousands of job
applications from EU workers. The Minister says she is not
responsible for the free market, but the Government are
responsible for Brexit.
(Con)
A cursory glance at the aviation industry around the world will
show that this problem is not specific to the UK. The US has had
significant problems, as have Ireland, the Netherlands and
France. The last time I looked, those three countries were
members of the European Union.
(Con)
My noble friend is aware of the delays as a result of the need to
look at security clearance for staff. This is particularly so
with large numbers of new staff being required to fill these
vacancies. That security clearance check is important, but those
delays could be speeded up immensely.
(Con)
I reassure my noble friend that the Government cracked this
problem many months ago and there are no delays within UK
security vetting. Accreditation checks are currently taking five
days; counterterrorism checks are taking 10 days. These are much
better than they were pre pandemic.
(LD)
My Lords, I am lucky enough to be having a holiday in
mid-Switzerland in a couple of weeks. In under a day, I can go
from Switzerland back to my home in west Cornwall by train. Does
the Minister agree with me that part of the answer to this might
be to look for less carbon-intensive forms of transport?
(Con)
As the noble Lord may know, the Government published our Jet Zero
Strategy today. We are absolutely focused on decarbonising the
aviation sector, but we recognise that high-speed rail is also
very attractive.
(Lab)
My Lords, I draw attention to my entry in the register of
interests. Would it not help passengers to fly if the Government
could manage to sort out the renewal of passports? Also, would it
not help if the Government were able to get the airports and
airlines to work together, instead of criticising each other,
given that check-in and baggage handling are handled by the
airlines but the remainder of the journey through the airport is
the responsibility of the airport itself?
(Con)
The noble Lord, , is completely right. When we
and the CAA wrote to the industry at the beginning of June, we
said that we wanted each airport to set up airport partner
working groups, which would bring together the airport itself,
the airlines, the ground handlers, Border Force and air traffic
control. We are conscious that ground handling is an important
part of the movement of passengers and their luggage through
airports, so we will conduct a review of the sector to look at
its quality and efficiency and at whether there are any
opportunities for change.
(CB)
My Lords, is it not the case that we need six free pages to
accommodate stamps when travelling within the European Union, for
example, if that passport needs to be stamped to enter the
country? What can be done to discourage or even stop airlines
from taking bookings on already overbooked flights? It creates
additional, questionable revenues on seats that are known not to
be available, before placing additional misery on those
affected.
(Con)
The Government have been absolutely clear with the aviation
sector: we do not want short-notice cancellations or overbooked
flights. We have done everything that it has asked us to do with
the slots hand-back, the legislation for which went through your
Lordships’ House recently, as noble Lords may have seen. In
return, having done everything the aviation sector would like, we
do not want passengers being treated in the way in which the
noble Viscount explained.
