Airlines told to offer 'realistic schedules' as UK unveils plan to avert more flight chaos

Ministers publish 22-point plan aimed at easing chaos over Easter and school holidays

Passengers queue for security checks at London Heathrow, the UK's main international airport. AP

Airlines flying from the UK have been told to offer “realistic schedules” over the summer to prevent last-minute cancellations from adding to the woes of British holidaymakers.

UK airports were plagued by long queues and cancelled flights during Easter and recent school holidays, blamed by ministers on pent-up demand and staff shortages after two years of the coronavirus pandemic. Flights are sometimes scrapped at the 11th hour.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has published a 22-point list of government initiatives including a £700,000 ($848,000) scheme to recruit staff and an offer to airlines to cut back schedules without losing slots.

But ministers said it was ultimately down to airlines and airports to prevent further outbreaks of chaos during the summer holidays.

London Heathrow Airport, the busiest in the UK, expects passenger numbers to rise to 53 million this year, about two thirds of pre-pandemic levels, after all restrictions on returning to the UK were abolished in March.

The airport on Thursday ordered about 30 flights to be cancelled, a day after broken passport gates caused long delays for passengers.

“With 100 days having passed since we set out that restrictions would be eased, there’s simply no excuse for widespread disruption,” Mr Shapps said.

“It’s now on airports and airlines to commit to running the flights they’ve promised or cancel them, with plenty of time to spare so we can avoid the kind of scenes we saw at Easter and half term.”

Heathrow Airport through the years - in pictures

Heathrow Airport in London, the UK's busiest, has been a travel hub for decades. Here The National takes a look back at Heathrow through the years. All photos: Getty Images

An Airco De Havilland biplane of the British airline, Aircraft Transport and Travel Limited, about to leave on the company’s inaugural flight from Hounslow Heath Aerodrome, later known as Heathrow, to Le Bourget, Paris, in August 1919

Waterlogged runways at London Airport - Heathrow's original name - one week before it became Britain's main aerial gateway to the US in 1946

The new BOAC maintenance headquarters at London Airport circa 1955

The air traffic control room at the airport's new terminal in 1955

US film star Marilyn Monroe with her husband, playwright Arthur Miller, after arriving at the airport in July 1956

An aerial view showing the runways in 1958

The arrivals and departures board in 1960

A new airport gift shop, selling items by Chanel, Wedgwood and Pringle of Scotland, in 1961

The Queen's Building and the No. 1 Building Europa at Heathrow in 1965

The Beatles leave Heathrow for Salzburg in Austria, to resume filming of the movie Help!, in 1965

Passenger terminal gates at Heathrow in 1966

Keith Granville, managing director of BOAC, holding up a model of the Boeing 747 jet, with the new aircraft hangars under construction in the background, at Heathrow in 1969

An aerial view of Heathrow in 1970

Passengers boarding the first BOAC Jumbo Jet 747 used for a commercial flight, from London Heathrow to New York, in 1971

Passengers going through the departure lounge at Heathrow in 1973

Concorde takes off from Heathrow on her first commercial flight for British Airways in 1976

Men at work finalising the Heathrow Central underground station before its opening in 1977

Queen Elizabeth II passing though the Tube gates at Heathrow Central station on its opening in 1977

An aerial view of Heathrow in 1978

Passengers waiting near a departures board in 1979

Holidaymakers waiting in the departure lounge at Terminal 3 of Heathrow in 1981

British Airways employees protesting at Heathrow in 1984

Passengers and staff observe a silence in Heathrow's Terminal One to mark the beginning of the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1997

Rower Steve Redgrave at Heathrow with daughters Sophie and Natalie and son Zak after returning from the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games with his gold medal

Spectators watch the last Concorde land at Heathrow in 2003

Fans surround the coach carrying the England rugby team at Heathrow, as they arrived from Sydney after winning the World Cup in 2003

Heathrow's Terminal 2 in 2004

Passengers queue to check in at Terminal 1 of Heathrow Airport during the Christmas 2006 and New Year period

Passengers wait at Terminal 1 on August 10, 2006, after airport security was raised to critical when a terrorist plot to blow up planes in mid-flight from the UK to the US was disrupted by police

Planes queueing to take off at Heathrow in 2007

The new Terminal 5 at Heathrow in 2008

Aircraft at Heathrow Airport in front of the London skyline in 2016

Members of Team GB arrive from Rio de Janeiro at Heathrow, after returning from the 2016 Olympics, which saw Great Britain's strongest performance at the Games in over a century

A composite photo shows planes taking off from Heathrow in November 2016. Forty-two planes were captured between 10.17am and 11.17am and a montage was created from those single images

Items are arranged during an auction preview at Heathrow in 2018. The contents of Terminal 1, which closed in 2015, were being sold

An airline passenger wearing a face mask pushes her bags through Heathrow's Terminal 5 during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020

British Airways employees welcome Olympians returning from the Tokyo Olympics in 2021

Travellers wait in a long queue to pass through the security check in 2022

The government said it not would turn to immigration as a way to recruit more staff, arguing that the US and mainland Europe had also suffered disruption.

Some industry figures have partly blamed post-Brexit immigration restrictions for the chaos, while ministers said getting people through training and background checks was another obstacle.

Eight of Mr Shapps’s 22 points were dedicated to hiring more staff, including by easing training requirements, promoting aviation careers via job centres, and working with colleges and universities.

His other talking points include:

• Demanding weekly updates to ministers from airlines and airports on whether they can deliver their summer schedules;
• Publishing a charter of passengers’ rights informing them of what they can expect of carriers;
• An amnesty announced last week that lets airlines hand back some of their allocated slots without losing them in future;
• Asking airports for updated plans for how they will assist disabled and less mobile passengers.

“Summer schedules must be reviewed to make sure they are deliverable,” and “everyone from ground handlers to air traffic control must collaborate on resilience planning,” the industry has been told.

Richard Moriarty, the head of the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority, said he shared the government’s ambitions to “resolve the travel issues that we’ve seen in previous months.”

“We will work alongside government and the wider industry to help deliver a better experience for passengers,” he said.