Jet2, a budget airline, said that airports were “woefully unprepared and poorly resourced” in order to accommodate the growing number of passengers who want to fly in recent months.
It stated that it was directly affected due to “inexcusable” wider disruptions in the airline industry and its suppliers.
Staff shortages have caused thousands of flights to be cancelled or delayed.
According to the airline, customers had to suffer a “very poorer experience” than what they should have.
Passenger have been affected by long queues, flight delays, cancellations, long queues and baggage handling issues.
Heathrow Airport requested airlines to cancel flights last month because they were unable to meet demand. Gatwick Airport also decreased the number of flights during peak summer periods due to staff shortages.
Philip Meeson is the executive chairman of Jet2. He stated that many suppliers were woefully unprepared and lacking in resources to handle the volume of customers they could reasonably anticipate.
“Inexcusable, considering that our flights were on sale for many month and our load factors have been quite normal.”
He called customer service, long security queues, and congestion in baggage handling “atrocious.”
He said that the airport congestion and the lack of food on board have made the customer’s holiday experience much less enjoyable.
“This is because many airports and their associated suppliers have not been prepared, prepared or willing to invest in the necessary planning and infrastructure to make it possible to return to normal operations.”
According to the airline, pre-tax losses in the most recent financial year were now at PS388.8m, up from PS341.3m losses the year prior.
Jet2 said: “Group performance for March 31 2023 will depend on how quickly and efficiently the broader aviation industry returns to stability. Also, the strength of bookings for summer and the second-half of the financial years, which is a period for whom we have limited visibility.”
