EasyJet boss criticises UK stance on visas for EU staff amid cancelled flights

The boss of easyJet has criticized the government's refusal to allow more visas for EU cabin crew and ground handling staff, arguing that easing restrictions would relieve pressure on aviation.

Despite widespread worker shortages and recruitment difficulties, industry requests to allow in more EU citizens to fill the gaps are not something that they have responded positively to.

Ballet dancers, circus artists, bakers and so on are allowed to come in, but not for aviation staff, according to the easyJet chief executive. It would relieve pressure if you could sort out the visa operation.

The airport reported a loss of 347 million dollars due to delayed and canceled flights.

He said that the visa rules for the aviation sector did not look like they were going to be changed. They don't feel inclined to do that right now.

EasyJet said it was difficult to find enough domestic staff to fill vacancies due to chronic worker shortages across the economy.

Lundgren said that the level of people that all of the industry is recruiting from has become smaller because we don't have the same amount of EU nationals available. We will work with the government to make sure the sector remains an attractive place to work and to make sure there is enough people we can recruit from.

The issues here are bigger than they are across Europe and Easyjet said it was facing problems on the continent.

The airline reported a £133m financial hit from disruption to air travel between April and June, leading to a pre-tax loss of £114m.

EasyJet was one of the worst airlines affected by travel turmoil and had to cancel about 10,000 flights in June.

The airline's reputation for reliability and customer service has been damaged due to the departure of its chief operating officer.

Lundgren said that easyJet had operated more than 3,100 flights on Saturday and Sunday and had not had to cancel any UK flights.

There has been a blame game between airports and airlines due to long wait times for travellers.

Lundgren said easyJet was trying to get compensation from airports that wanted to cap flight numbers in order to control travel disruptions.

Lundgren said that it was definitely something that they would be discussing individually with the operators and their partners.