A British Airways pilot has predicted the airline will continue to experience disruption and has warned passengers against flying at certain times.
The pilot, who spoke anonymously to the Mirror, said staff morale is at its lowest, with a huge number of senior members poised to leave and pilots suffering from burnout. BA, they said, is struggling to get services running to pre-covid levels after what the pilot saw as mismanagement during the pandemic.
BA has already cancelled 10% of services between March and October this year. The pilot now predicts more flights will be grounded this summer.
READ MORE: Teachers miss work after Jubilee weekend hen party in Portugal
They said: "A pilot I was speaking to the other day said he hadn't been worked this hard in 15 years at the company. We're full on at the moment. There are not many happy people right now. It is a perfect storm."
The pilot explained how massively reduced demand triggered by the pandemic caused the industry go into "money saving mode" and ask '"how can we mitigate the losses and take as much money as we can from the Government?"
They continued: "An airline isn't a charity, they're there to protect the share holders, but it's been pretty cut throat. They cut all the jobs that they wanted to cut and furloughed everyone.
"When demand slowly came back, it was mixed in with the government strategy to restart the aviation industry, which was appalling."
The BA worker said a combination of the confusing an expensive testing regime, Brexit uncertainty and regular rule changing by the government had caused huge certainty across airlines. When the brakes were suddenly taken off earlier this year and the vast majority of countries reopened, BA was not ready to get its services running at full-tilt again, the pilot claimed.
They added: "For me, being fully back online, you need two months' warning. The industry was given weeks. There was no time. That time frame is for someone who is on the company books and has experience.
"To do a recruitment campaign and then training and security checks, that takes months."
Many of the pilot's colleagues left during the pandemic and found better work for themselves, with easier hours and higher pay, they said. The pilot added: "The airlines didn't realise people would go."
The BA employee said pilots were now being given mixed messages about the state of the company, with regular overtime offered alongside claims that they're overstaffed. They said: "They're not admitting they're short on pilots.
"We might be correctly crewed by winter time. There is no chance this will be sorted this summer. The last month (August) might be okay. "But new staff don't want to come because they know the pay has been cut and everyone is doing overtime. That's everyone: baggage handlers, cabin crew, all the rest."
When asked whether they would advise people to book a holiday this summer, they said: "If you're looking at going on an easyJet from Gatwick in the school holidays in Alicante, probably not.
"Maybe midweek out of the school holidays, at a low demand time, yeah go for it."
The pilot went on to explain how BA workers' rotas are currently full, meaning they're unable to take on extra shifts due to strict laws around workloads.
As a result back-up teams held in standby at airports and at their homes were being deployed to cover fatigue and sickness absences, already using up what little slack there is before the summer has begun in proper. The upshot of this is more cancelled flights and more delays, the pilot claimed.
A BA spokesperson said: "While it’s disappointing to hear this view from one of our more than four thousand world class pilots, we offer an industry leading career path for our flight crew including the opportunity to work on a range of new aircraft, flying to a variety of global destinations with an extremely competitive salary and package.
"Because of our approach, we have never had an issue attracting or retaining flight crew."
BA notes that it offered a 5% pay award this year and says that the package it offers is among the best in the industry, while also bringing attention to its "world class training centre at Heathrow". It also says that pilots are not flying while fatigued and that cancellations being reported now are included in the 10% reduction from March to October.
Receive newsletters with the latest news, sport and what's on updates from the Liverpool ECHO by signing up here
Martin Lewis' message to people on Universal Credit or other benefits
Greece travel update as covid rule changes
BBC's Platinum Party at the Palace under fire as fans slam Rod Stewart performance
