The founder of airline and tour operator Jet2 has delivered a withering criticism of UK airport operators, saying they have been “woefully ill-prepared” following Covid.
Philip Meeson, executive chairman of the Leeds-based carrier, said the level of preparedness at most of the airline’s ten UK base airports was “inexcusable” and accused them of unwillingness to invest.
The comments accompanied the company’s preliminary unaudited accounts for the year ended March 2022 which show the UK’s third largest airline narrowed operating losses to £323.9m from £336.1m - through the period in which the travel sector was recovering from pandemic restrictions.
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Mr Meeson said: “Broadly, most of our 10 UK base airports have been woefully ill-prepared and poorly resourced for the volume of customers they could reasonably expect, as have other suppliers, such as onboard caterers and providers of Airport PRM (passengers with reduced mobility) services. Inexcusable, bearing in mind our flights have been on sale for many months and our load factors are quite normal.
“Theirs and the ground handling suppliers' often atrocious customer service, long queues for security search, lack of staff and congestion in baggage handling areas, and the consequent airport congestion, together with the frequent lack of onboard catering supplies, have each contributed to a very much poorer experience at the start and finish of our customers' holidays than they were entitled to expect. Inevitably, these customer-facing challenges have put extra pressure on our colleagues, both in the UK, onboard our aircraft and in our holiday destinations.
“This difficult return to normal operations has occurred simply because of the lack of planning, preparedness and unwillingness to invest by many airports and associated suppliers.”
Jet2 said it had invested well ahead of the summer 2022 season to ensure it had the resources to operate efficiently but had been let down by suppliers.
The airline acknowledged that price rises were likely and said performance for 2023 would depend on how quickly the broader aviation sector returns to some level of stability, as well as the strength of bookings for the remainder of this summer.
During the period it flew 4.85m passengers, an increase of 267% on 2021, and 51% of those travellers had bought package holidays from the Jet2holidays arm.
Despite the difficulties the business said it had entered an agreement with manufacturer Airbus for up to 75 new A321 neo aircraft, of which 60 are now firm orders.
A spokesperson for the Airport Operators Association said: “Airports have been preparing for this summer since the end of last year, but it was not until March that all travel restrictions fell away and many people felt able to return to aviation, both for travel and employment.
“Recruitment campaigns for security staff are ongoing and progressing well, with more staff being deployed as they finish their training and security vetting. Airports are also working closely with airlines, the companies managing check-in and baggage on behalf of airlines as well as the Government to alleviate any delays where they do occur and to support others in the industry who are coping with staff shortages.
“By working closely together in this way, we aim to deliver the service that passengers have rightly come to expect.”
