Travellers have been warned to expect a summer of chaos at Britain’s airports after ministers were accused of overseeing “cripplingly slow” security checks for new staff.
The number of flights leaving the UK will be at 78 per cent of pre-pandemic levels this weekend as airports prepare for the biggest getaway since 2019.
But dozens of UK flights were cancelled yesterday amid a surge in demand from families wanting to travel abroad for the Easter holidays. British Airways called off 64 domestic or European flights to or from Heathrow, affecting routes to Berlin, Dublin, Geneva, Paris and Stockholm. EasyJet cancelled at least 25 flights to or from Gatwick, hitting routes to Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Glasgow and Milan. The airlines said that passengers had been given warning.
Airlines have been keen to attract bookings after Covid travel restrictions were eased but they are struggling to cope with staff shortages. EasyJet said 20 per cent of staff were absent at some of its bases. The problem is caused in part by difficulties finding recruits and having their security checks processed, and also by high levels of Covid-related absences.
Senior industry figures told The Times that it was taking up to six months to vet new security screening staff, cabin crew and baggage operators as airports and airlines expanded their operations after the pandemic.
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Vetting usually takes 14 to 15 weeks. Industry sources have accused the government of failing to provide the resources to cope with extra demand.
Johan Lundgren, chief executive of Easy Jet, said today: “What we’re seeing is that there’s this delay of the clearance from the DfT (Department for Transport) for people to get their IDs.
“There’s a backlog there and we’re waiting currently for about 100 cabin crew to get their IDs. There’s a three-week delay on that. That has had an impact. If that would have been on time, we would have seen less cancellations.”
Rising Covid-19 infections had affected the whole of the UK, Lundgren said. “But I understand the DfT and the ministers are doing what they can to accelerate and speed this up, which we find very constructive, but it definitely has had an impact.”
He added: “We would normally be able to cover anything with the current crew that we have if there was a normal crew absence. It’s not about [a shortage]. We’ve had absence levels that have been doubled because of Covid.
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“It’s also slightly unevenly spread. In some cases, we’ve seen absence levels at bases of some 20 per cent and we wouldn’t be able to cover. Normally our crew resilience would be double of what normal crew sickness would be.
“That’s where we are at this moment in time. But we did not foresee that the spike was going to increase as much as, I said, in some cases 20 per cent and that’s where the challenges arose. But it’s not like we have on a normalised operation, a shortage of crew. That’s not the case.”
A government source denied that it was responsible for the long delays in vetting staff, adding that the checks, carried out by the Cabinet Office, were done in a fraction of the time claimed by the industry.
Passengers have faced three-hour queues for security at some airports. Across the sector there are understood to be tens of thousands of potential staff waiting for security clearance, with a backlog of 12,000 potential employees at Heathrow alone.
Industry executives said that the problem was being compounded by some recruits taking other jobs while they waited without pay in the clearance backlog, forcing airlines and airports to start the process again.
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They warned that unless ministers rapidly improved vetting procedures and invested in new technology to speed up the process it was inevitable that the problems would continue into the peak summer holiday period.
“The process is cripplingly slow,” one senior industry figure said. “Aviation was one of the hardest-hit sectors during the pandemic, suffered from a lack of targeted support, and is now facing a summer disrupted by the government being slow in vetting staff.”
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Ministers rejected the criticism, insisting that they would not cut corners on security clearance. They blamed airlines and airports for creating the problem by driving away long-established staff with brutal redundancy rounds during the pandemic.
“The one thing the British public don’t want us taking a risk on is who has security clearance to work on airlines,” a government source said. “They and the travel companies treated their staff so badly through the pandemic it’s no surprise they don’t want to come back.”
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More than 9,000 flights are due to leave this weekend, carrying more than a million holidaymakers.
It comes amid protests that resulted in some petrol stations being forced to close in southern England on Sunday, according to fuel campaigners.
Drivers have been advised to expect the busiest Easter on record with an estimated 21.5 million leisure trips expected to be made by car between Good Friday and Easter Monday, according to the RAC. The figure is the highest number since the organisation started tracking motorists’ Easter plans in 2014.
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The RAC is predicting that Friday will be the busiest day on the roads, with more than 4.62 million trips planned.
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Disruption around Dover is expected and delays are also likely on the M6 north of junction 26 for Liverpool to junction 36 South Lakes and on the A303 approaching Stonehenge.
Bottlenecks are also predicted on the M25 clockwise from junction 8 in Surrey to Junction 16 in Buckinghamshire, according to Inrix, a data company.
People travelling by train this weekend have also been warned to expect delays and cancellations due to engineering works on the rail network with no services running in or out of Euston in London.
The West Coast Main Line will be closed as far as Milton Keynes between Friday and Monday. In London, the Piccadilly Line to Heathrow will be suspended and the Gatwick Express will be closed and the Stansted Express replaced by a bus.
The flights cancelled yesterday included BA routes between Heathrow and Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Manchester and Newcastle. EasyJet cancelled flights to Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Glasgow and Milan.
BA decided last month it would reduce its schedule until the end of May to reduce the need to cancel flights at short notice due to staff shortages. It has focused on routes with numerous daily flights, meaning passengers can be offered alternative flights on the same day they booked.
The boss of Heathrow said that “resources are stretched” because of a sudden increase in travel post-pandemic. The airport recorded its busiest month since the start of the pandemic in March.
Heathrow was used by 4.2 million passengers last month and more are expected this month. That is eight times more than in March last year.
John Holland-Kaye, the airport’s chief executive, said: “Everyone at Heathrow is doing everything we can to make sure passengers get on their way as smoothly and safely as possible.”
There has been a rise in coronavirus-related staff absence in recent weeks, and the aviation industry is also struggling with delays vetting new staff.
The airport said it was working with Border Force to “ensure sufficient levels of resource are in place to cope with the large number of passengers returning to the UK over the next couple of weeks”.
Lucy Moreton, of the Immigration Services Union, which represents Border Force staff, said there was “potential for significant problems at the tail end of the week”. She said that planning had already started with officers drafted in from Scotland and Northern Ireland to staff desks at Heathrow.
Drivers wanting to avoid congestion are urged to start their journey before 9am or delay it until after 7.30pm this weekend.
Rod Dennis, the RAC traffic spokesman, said: “After two years of relatively quiet Easter bank holidays on the roads, our research suggests a return to traffic levels that are much more typical of this time of year.
“It’s very possible this weekend could turn out to be one of the busiest for leisure journeys for many years. Add in the impact of disruption on the rail network and one of the biggest fixtures of the sporting calendar taking place this weekend, and you have all the ingredients needed for problems on the roads.”
The closure of the West Coast Main Line, for engineering projects and work on HS2, will affect football fans travelling to watch Liverpool play Manchester City in the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley on Saturday.
Large queues are likely to continue on roads in Kent due to a shortage of cross-Channel sailings caused by the suspension of operations by P&O Ferries after it sacked nearly 800 workers without notice on March 17.
The company hopes to resume services this week. The ferry Spirit of Britain is undergoing a safety inspection at Dover, which is likely to last two days.
BA and easyJet have each cancelled hundreds of flights in recent weeks. Heathrow said that “too much of the process relies on manual checks which could be automated”. It called on ministers to reduce red tape to speed up recruitment of staff.
A spokesman for the airport said that while the vetting process was “rightfully robust”, it was so slow that strong candidates often took up jobs in other sectors.
BA is seeking “thousands” of new recruits, with those applying for priority roles, including cabin crew, offered a £1,000 bonus when signing on. The “vast majority” of recruits will need vetting for an airside security pass.
Passengers at Manchester airport, the worst affected by the shortages, have been told to arrive three hours before departure with security queues of up to 90 minutes expected to last for the “next few months”.
The Airport Operators Association, which represents the sector, said: “Airports have been preparing for passengers’ return for some time and are working hard to recruit more staff in a very competitive labour market.”
A government spokesman said: “The aviation industry is responsible for resourcing at airports and they manage their staff absences, although we want to see minimal disruption for passengers during the Easter period.”
