UK orders airlines to make sure all summer flights go ahead as advertised

The UK government and aviation regulator have ordered airlines to ensure all their advertised flights go ahead this summer, as industry bosses apologised for the disruption that marred the half-term getaway. The Department for Transport and Civil Aviation Authority on Tuesday wrote a joint letter to the aviation industry which said “more needs to be done” to guarantee the summer holiday season would not be affected by further interruptions following “unacceptable scenes” over recent weeks.  Airlines were told to cancel flights early rather than scrap them at the last minute, and to “review afresh” their plans for the summer to “develop a schedule that is deliverable”. The intervention came after senior aviation industry officials conceded the recent wave of disruption was unacceptable, but warned that the industry was still suffering from staff shortages and there were no guarantees the problems would be solved by the summer holidays. Between 2 and 4% of UK flights were cancelled during the first week of May, compared with a normal rate of 1%, the CAA said. Sophie Dekkers, easyJet’s CCO, issued an apology to customers caught up in the problems. “We haven’t got it right and we need to get it right,” she said at a parliamentary select committee hearing on Tuesday. “We definitely want to be better, no one wants to let customers down,” Lisa Tremble, a senior executive at British Airways, told the hearing. Tremble and other airline executives said many factors had contributed to the problems, including staff shortages and the uncertainty that was gripping the travel industry until as recently as March when the UK government loosened its remaining coronavirus travel rules.<br/>