Boss of BA owner blames ministers for airport disruption

The boss of British Airways has criticized the government over the causes of airline delays.

The chief executive spoke out against the criticism of the sector by the transportation secretary.

He told the Sunday Times that the government needs to be held accountable and work with them in a constructive way.

Predicting demand is one thing airlines know how to do. Predicting what the government will do is more difficult.

The system that dictated which countries the UK would accept travellers from was called thetraffic light. Before Easter, we left all restrictions in place.

The back-up system of tens of thousands of airport staff can't be turned on and off at the same time. There are staff shortages in every area.

It is not fair to tell the public that this is caused by the airlines because they were surprised by Shapps's attacks.

Is it possible to do it better. It's for certain. Is it possible that we have our own issues? It's for certain. Everybody needs to know they can do better.

In Spain, Vueling had almost all of its capacity up and running in the month of April. Iberia was at 98% capacity and 98% on time.

Aer Lingus in Ireland was at 80% punctuality. In the UK, BA was operating at full capacity and on time.

The British government dealt with the Pandemic in a unique way.

He said that Britain didn't support airlines as much as most other countries.

There was a scheme in Spain that gave more money for employees to use. The British scheme came to an end in September 2021.

The Irish government put on more restrictions than other countries so we had to cut employment there.

The US government covered the payrolls of airlines so they didn't have to lay off staff.

The vaccine programme in Britain was very good, but the changes in Covid policies were a nightmare, he said.

The industry and customers were left confused by the government's travel rules.

The UK airline bosses want the government to allow EU aviation workers onto the UK visa list and to relax the 100 day vetting process for potential employees.

It's difficult to get five years of continuous employment history for airport staff since many of them lost their jobs during the Pandemic.

IAG wants the government to make it easier for airlines to use their slots at airports. They can be stripped of their slots if they don't operate 70% of them. Even if the airlines don't have the staff to operate the flights, they still have to run at that capacity. The minimum is in Europe.

The business, energy and industrial strategy select committee will examine airline executives on Tuesday.

The industry blames the government's stop-start travel policies and lack of support over the past two years.