Summer of misery ahead for UK rail and air travellers

Travellers in the UK will be hit by a summer of travel misery as the chief executive of London’s Heathrow airport warned it would take up to 18 months for the aviation industry to return to pre-pandemic levels and the largest rail union announced the biggest strike action in 30 years. Thousands of holidaymakers have been stranded over the last week with hundreds of flights cancelled due to staff shortages and air traffic control delays. “I think it will take 12 to 18 months for the aviation sector to fully recover capacity, so we will have to really carefully manage supply and demand,” John Holland-Kaye, Heathrow’s CE, told a conference. The aviation industry cut tens of thousands of jobs during the coronavirus pandemic and is now struggling to rehire after demand for travel snapped back very quickly this year. Holland-Kaye said ministers could help by further easing the rules around security background and employment history checks for new staff. On Monday 500 staff at British Airways began voting on whether to strike in a row over pay, with the union Unite warning it would time any industrial action with the summer holidays to cause maximum disruption.<br/>