Gatwick cuts summer flights after staff shortages

Gatwick Airport is reducing the number of flights during the peak summer period due to staff shortages.

The number of daily flights will be cut to 825 in July and 850 in August, down from 900 in previous years.

It comes after the government and regulators wrote to airlines telling them to ensure their summer timetables were “deliverable”.

Tens of thousands of passengers have been hit by cancellations and delays at UK airports in recent weeks.

Gatwick said it had taken the decision to temporarily reduce flights following a review of its operations, to help passengers “experience a more reliable and better standard of service”.

Stewart Wingate, the airport’s chief executive, said that during the week of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations a number of companies operating at the airport had struggled because of staff shortages.

“By taking decisive action now, we aim to help the ground handlers – and also our airlines – to better match their flying programmes with their available resources,” he said.

EasyJet said it was “aware” of the capacity cap announced by Gatwick Airport and is “reviewing the details” to assess how it will affect the airline’s operation.

It said: “We expect to be able to reaccommodate the majority of customers should their flight be affected by the cap.

“We recognise the need for Gatwick Airport to do this… so all airlines can provide reliable services for their customers.”

Travel correspondent Simon Calder said the “whole industry is stretched” – especially ground handlers and the airlines.

“This is all about avoiding the scenes of chaos at airports and actually making sure that say 95% of people are travelling”, the Independent correspondent told BBC Radio 4’s Today.

“Of course that’s unfair on the 5% who aren’t”, he said and explained that air rights ensures passengers have “an absolute right” to travel on the day their flight was scheduled if there are any available seats on any airlines.

Gatwick Airport wants to have a “sensible summer” said Mr Calder, who said the “capping” of flights should enable this.

Julia Lo Bue-Said from Advantage Travel Partnership said people really need “advance warning” if flights are cancelled.

Despite the “vast majority” of flights being able to depart, passengers need “certainty”, the CEO of the UK’s largest independent travel agent group said.

Referring to previous travel disruption at UK airports this year, she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “This looks like a pragmatic solution to try and avoid some of that.”

More than 150 flights across the UK were cancelled during the week of the Platinum Jubilee, as many people tried to take advantage of the four-day weekend to travel.

Airlines also suffered severe disruption during spikes in demand at the half-term school holiday and during Easter, prompting apologies from companies such as British Airways, TUI and EasyJet.

Business minister Paul Scully suggested one solution to the airport chaos could be for staff to work longer hours if they want to.

He told Sky News he was “not talking about going out forcing people to do anything”, but “it’s just that those people who can work longer – that want to work longer – can do”.

“We want to work really closely with the airports and the airlines to make sure that they are doing everything they can and see what more we can do.”

Gatwick said it had recruited 400 new staff to help passengers pass through security checks this summer and more new recruits would start in the coming weeks.

But the airport’s review found that many companies based at the airport still had a severe lack of staff and if the issue was not addressed, passengers could experience queues delays and cancellations.

The aviation industry made thousands of employees redundant during the pandemic and many have yet to be replaced, despite a spike in demand for travel.

Following a wave of cancellations and delays at airports, the Department of Transport and the Civil Aviation Authority wrote to airlines telling them to review their schedules and to cancel flights that could not be delivered “at the earliest possibility”.

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