British holidaymakers are facing more travel chaos this summer after the government and the Civil Aviation Authority ordered airlines to cancel flights they could not offer.
In a joint letter to the airlines’ heads, the Department of Transportation and the CAA demanded that airlines review their daylight saving time to make sure they were “deliverable.” Flights that are not feasible must be canceled as soon as possible.
Rannia Leontaridi, head of aviation at DfT, and Richard Moriarty, chief executive of the CAA, warned that there would be “inevitable cancellations” in the coming weeks.
In the letter to the Chiefs of Aviation, they added: “Your schedules should be based on the resources you and your contractors expect to have available and should be resilient to the unplanned and unavoidable operational challenges you face. .
“While cancellations at any time are an unfortunate inconvenience for passengers, we believe that cancellations at the earliest opportunity to offer a stronger schedule are better for consumers than late cancellations.” .
The warning comes after thousands of flights were canceled in recent weeks at UK airports due to staff shortages, creating misery for British tourists.
Leontaridi and Moriarty told airlines to “take all possible steps to prepare and manage passenger demand” to “avoid the unacceptable scenes we have witnessed recently.”
They also said that when there are “inevitable cancellations [and] delays “, passengers must” communicate quickly, clearly and empathetically “.
Earlier this week, The Telegraph revealed that Transport Secretary Grant Shapps was resisting demands for emergency action to allow an influx of foreign workers to alleviate the staffing crisis at airports.