The transport secretary has asked travel managers to “do their part” to solve the problems that cause chaos at airports during the half holidays.
Grant Shapps said that “resource burdens on the aviation sector” are no excuse for poor planning and overbooking of aircraft.
He said long queues and flight cancellations which has ruined many British holidays was “heartbreaking”.
More than 150 flights were canceled British Airways and easyJet Wednesday, when hundreds of airlines were cut off in the past week.
There are fears that the disturbance may worsen over the weekend on public holidays.
Airlines say they have struggled to recruit quickly enough to deal with the pent-up demand for COVID travel restrictions were lifted, while industry executives blame the government for not helping the sector properly recover from the pandemic.
The Department of Transportation said Mr Shapps had a “productive meeting” with senior executives from the aviation industry yesterday.
British Airways, easyJet and TUI Airways were present along with airports including Gatwick, Birmingham, Bristol, Luton and Newcastle.
Sir. Shapps continued his concern that air passengers were being unfairly sold tickets for vacations they could not take on, and said he would continue to talk about options that would give passengers automatic refunds.
He said companies that have experienced the most disruption should learn from those who ran services smoothly.
He said the government has “made the necessary changes to allow the sector to prepare for the summer, but now we need the industry to do their part”.
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‘Perfect storm’ hits UK airports and airlines
“We have been crystal clear – run services properly and on schedule or provide prompt, appropriate compensation,” he said.
“We do not want to see a repeat of this over the summer – the first post-COVID summer season – and we will meet again in the coming weeks to understand the progress being made.”
Read more: Why is there chaos in some UK airports?
The CEO of Airlines UK said the airlines wanted to work with ministers to address these issues “as soon as possible”.
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Unreasonable to ‘blame the aviation industry’
Karen Dee, executive director of the Airport Operators Association, said the meeting had been a “good opportunity to discuss the challenges that airports are currently facing following the devastating effects of the pandemic” and to explain how the industry “is efforts to get passengers off smoothly this weekend and preparing for the summer “.
There are 10,794 flights from UK airports between Thursday and Sunday.
