Does Gatwick announcement mean another summer of airport turbulence?
Simon Calder answers your questions on flight cancellations, rail strikes and claiming compensation
Q I’m booked to fly out of Gatwick in late July. Since hearing about the cancellations of an unspecified number of flights I’m feeling all wobbly again – just as I did a year ago when the “traffic light bingo” was wrecking our holidays. Do you agree that this has been abysmally handled?
Julia S
A Thanks for the reminder of the miserable days of summer 2021. After international travel resumed in May, every three weeks the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, presided over another round of what became known as quarantine roulette – or, as you call it, traffic light bingo.
The travel industry, its workforce and passengers were subjected to a categorisation system of perceived risk that was, in the words of the transport select committee, “opaque, ambiguous and inconsistent”. Who could forget “amber plus”? At short notice, France – the second-most popular nation for British holidaymakers – was placed in a mandatory quarantine category of its own, just ahead of the height of the tourist season.
In comparison, Gatwick’s announcement of an agreement with airlines and ground handlers to trim back their July and August operations looks relatively benign. The vast majority of holidaymakers will fly as planned. Agreed, the 260,000 (my estimate) who will find their flights cancelled will be inconvenienced – but thanks to European air passengers’ rights rules, they are entitled to be flown to their destination on the same day, if necessary by a different airline.
The trouble, as you suggest, is that we have no idea who those people will be. The consumer group Which? has criticised Gatwick for announcing that cuts will be made without specifying the affected flights. But I honestly can’t see a better way to handle an unfortunate situation: being open about the problem and solution, and encouraging airlines to give as much notice as possible seems a reasonable way to proceed. Meanwhile, risk-intolerant people who have yet to book can simply choose a different London airport.
Q For personal reasons I really need to travel by train next week, mostly to and from London. I have seen the rail industry plans for partial coverage and I can work with those. But can you give your professional opinion about whether the emergency timetable can be relied upon? I know you have been covering rail strikes for some considerable time.
Cathy B
A The general secretary of the RMT union, Mick Lynch, has vowed “a sustained campaign of industrial action which will shut down the railway system”. Around 40,000 of his members working for Network Rail and 13 train operators are to strike on 21, 23 and 25 June, with effects on the intervening days and 26 June.
Stay away unless you really need to travel, is the advice from the rail industry. The biggest impediment to trains running is the absence of signallers, which is why at least half the route miles around Britain will be closed.
Yet unlike in the big rail strikes of the 20th century, passengers on the busiest parts of the network have been promised a half-decent train service on strike days – albeit only between 7.30am and 6.30pm daily.
On each day of next week’s national rail strike, train operators plan to run about 4,500 trains. That’s 77.5 per cent fewer than the normal 20,000. London, by far the biggest rail hub, will see a plausible suburban service, while commuters from Brighton, Winchester and beyond should be able to be at their desks in the City by 9am.
On the key arterial routes west and north from London – to Bristol and Cardiff, Birmingham and Manchester, Leeds and Newcastle – inter-city services will run, albeit at depleted frequencies.
Notwithstanding on-the-day signal or points failures, which could take longer to fix than normal, my expectation is that this timetable has been designed conservatively; being unable to deliver a skeleton service would be a PR embarrassment. So I am confident about the travel prospects. We shall see. Meanwhile, stay optimistic.
Q I’m due to go to Mallorca early in October. Is it worth booking my flight now or should I wait until all this chaos dies down?
Brian Munick
A What a week it has been – or eight weeks, the time since international travel restrictions were removed for returning to the UK. Hundreds of flights have been cancelled as airlines battle with staff shortages, while Covid infections and labour scarcity have caused problems in the companies that supply the airline operation, from refuelling to replenishing the galleys.
Airline bosses have told MPs that security vetting delays for aviation staff are partly to blame for the scale of flight cancellations. Others blame Brexit. But whatever the cause, the harm to travellers is clear: their holiday plans are torn up as planes are cancelled, sometimes with just a few minutes’ notice.
To make the situation even worse, I’ve seen many examples of carriers failing to offer flights on alternative airlines, and making it difficult for passengers to claim the compensation and other costs that are due to them.
Things are improving. For the first time since the cancellation crisis began, the CAA and DfT have ordered airlines to comply with European air passengers’ rights rules. The government says they must be told about their rights.
The authorities also instruct airlines who cannot align supply with demand to proactively cancel flights for July and August now to “de-risk the summer”. The Department for Transport and Civil Aviation Authority have written a joint letter to carriers serving the UK saying: “Cancellations at the earliest possibility to deliver a more robust schedule are better for consumers than late-notice on-the-day cancellations.”
So things should improve swiftly, in time for the main summer peak in July and August. We shall see. But in your position, I certainly wouldn’t book a flight to Mallorca in early October right now anyway. By late September, there will still be seats available at reasonable fares. Booking later reduces the risk that an unrelated issue might scupper your plans.
Q We are a family of four. Our flight home from Palermo to Luton with easyJet was cancelled. No imminent alternative flights were offered – we were only offered a refund or voucher. We just wanted to get home as soon as possible, so booked our own flights on Eurowings, from Palermo to London Heathrow via Cologne. How do I now claim a refund, reimbursement and compensation? Should I apply for a refund from easyJet for the cancelled flight first, then do a compensation claim, or should I simply claim from travel insurance? I’m so confused.
Kirsty C
A To start at the end of your question: for the vast majority of claims resulting from easyJet’s wholesale short-notice cancellations, travel insurance is irrelevant: the airline is squarely responsible for paying out for the financial consequences of its actions.
The straightforward element should be to claim the £1,400 due to a family of four for a flight of that length (between 1,500km and 3,500km) under European air passengers’ rights rules. Search online for “easyJet 261 claim form”.
Most of the cancellations on easyJet at present are due to staff shortages or technical problems with the aircraft. In such cases, there should be no dispute about your entitlement. The clue is probably hidden in the cancellation message you received from easyJet – if it mentioned other factors, such as bad weather somewhere in Europe or an air-traffic control failure, then you may have more of a battle securing the payment.
Next, recompense for your expenses. In the absence of support from easyJet (which, with a bit of work, might have been able to offer a routing via mainland Italy), your solution for getting home looks perfectly reasonable. A short-notice booking like the one you made, I speculate, probably cost around £250 per person – around £1,000 for the family. In your application for expenses, deduct the cost of your original flight from the total for replacement tickets, accommodation and meals – do not ask directly for a refund for the cancelled flight because this may possibly undermine your rights.
Email your question to s@hols.tv or tweet @simoncalder
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