Who is responsible for the disruption at airports, and when will it end?

Simon Calder answers your questions on airport chaos, flight schedules, and whether you should renew your passport when you change your name

Travellers can expect at least another two months of turmoil (PA)

Q Where does blame lie for all this air travel chaos, and how long will it last?

James S

A First, while the headlines suggest we are at peak “travel chaos”, most holidaymakers are getting away more or less as they planned. Having said that, here we are in the first weekend of the July-August summer season. Anyone hoping to get away will be forgiven for thinking that a tangle of turmoil stands between them and that Mediterranean beach, sunset aperitif or intercontinental adventure.

The level of disruption is distressingly high. As of late on Saturday afternoon, I have been contacted by British Airways passengers delayed at Glasgow by six hours and in danger of missing their cruise; a school party of 34 stranded by BA in Athens; and easyJet passengers whose flights, particularly in and out of London Gatwick, have been cancelled at short notice. Travellers are reporting long queues for departures at Manchester airport, where there have also been lengthening delays. And reports suggest that airlines are preparing to cancel yet more flights this month and next.

The underlying cause is a staff shortage across the many highly specialised roles in aviation that are all required to synchronise to get you and your baggage safely to your destination: at check-in, the security search, the departure gate, dispatchers on the apron, baggage handlers, refuellers, air traffic controllers, pilots and cabin crew. Everyone is working at full stretch, with no resilience to cope with the usual summer problems of storms, strikes and systems failures – let alone the high levels of Covid infections that are causing cancellations on Lufthansa and Aer Lingus.

Some airports and airlines, and more particularly their passengers, are having an especially tough summer. Heathrow, Gatwick and Manchester are showing the strain, while British Airways and easyJet have evidently overpromised the flights they can deliver over the peak.

Of course, during the many months of travel restrictions, the whole aviation industry begged the government to be allowed to fly passengers in and out of the UK without the extreme restrictions imposed by the transport secretary, Grant Shapps – who is now accusing them all of failing to prepare. But I believe that at the root of the summer’s disarray are the over-optimistic assumptions of the aviation industry combined with an unprecedented appetite for travel.

When will it end? I can predict with some certainty that the key date for a return to calm is Monday 5 September, when demand will collapse as everyone resumes work or school.

It’s common practice for companies to adjust schedules (Getty)

Q It’s not right that airlines can pad their flight times in order to show they arrive at the destination on time, is it?

“Dart H”

A Every transport enterprise I know adds a margin to its schedules to allow for disruption. For example, in South Yorkshire the three-and-a-half-mile non-stop rail journey from Meadowhall to Sheffield is routinely timetabled for 10 minutes, even though it should be an easy seven-minute hop. The schedule padding allows for congestion on the approach to the busy station, and to make up for time lost earlier in the journey.

The range of disruptions that can affect a flight is far wider, and consequently padding tends to be generous – much more than the “perfect” flight time between two points.

As an example, I have looked at the final Ryanair flight scheduled to arrive at London Stansted on Saturday night (2 July). The plane involved is a 15-year-old Boeing 737 that is based at the Essex airport. In the 16 hours between 8am and one minute to midnight, it was scheduled to fly round-trips from Stansted to Naples in Italy, Carcassonne in France and Santiago in Spain. The day began badly with a 20-minute delay, I believe caused by air traffic control restrictions – the first weekend of July was extremely busy over Europe. Thanks to schedule padding, it arrived more or less on time in the Italian city. The delay on the ground at Naples was 40 minutes, and it returned 20 minutes late to Stansted.

Every other departure of the plane during the day was late, up to and including the final return flight to Essex from Santiago, which was half an hour behind schedule. In the event, the delay in arrival was just five minutes. That suggests to me that padding the schedule achieved its aim – and I can’t see that airlines have anything to gain from the practice other than operational resilience.

Getting married doesn’t mean you should renew a passport that has years left to run (Getty/iStock)

Q I recently got married and have taken my husband’s surname. However, we booked our honeymoon months ago in my maiden name. My passport is still in my maiden name, and has five years on it before it runs out – so ideally I don’t want to renew it yet. Is it still OK to travel under my maiden name, even though I will be changing my surname with my bank, driving licence, etc?

Sarah S

A There is no problem at all with keeping your passport in your maiden name – so long as you are careful to make future travel bookings in this name.

One of the more ridiculous aspects of air travel is the obsession with matching a name on a ticket with that on the passport. Were I to book an air journey under the name Mickey Mouse, no one at the airport would bat an eyelid so long as I also had a passport in the same name (as long as it didn’t appear as Michael Mouse).

In normal times, when people find themselves facing extremely high fees for changing the name on a ticket (for example when the original traveller is unable to go), I urge them to change their name by deed poll to match the booking and obtain a new passport in that name.

Given the long waits and wider problems currently afflicting HM Passport Office, I urge you not to contemplate changing your passport any time soon. Also, you have about £35 worth of passport left, and every reason to hang on to it. Two friends of mine who recently got married are currently grounded because the bride decided to apply for a new passport in the groom’s last name; the passport has been stuck in the system for months.

If you are heading together to one of the few parts of the world where couples are allowed to share a room only when married, I suggest you take your marriage certificate.

The only other possible issue I can foresee has nothing to do with travel: it may be that you are asked to produce your passport as proof of identity in some circumstances. But a driving licence will usually work just as well.

Email your questions to s@hols.tv or tweet @simoncalder​