Credit:PA
It is no secret that the aviation industry in the UK is a mess.
But who is to blame? The government says it’s the aviation industry while many others have said it is Brexit or at least a combination of both.
In Edinburgh, footage of a pilot has gone viral as he chipped in to help ground staff load up a plane.
It comes as EasyJet has just announced it is “proactively” cancelling flights at Gatwick in response to a cap introduced by the airport.
The airline has cancelled dozens of daily flights at the West Sussex airport in recent weeks, including some when passengers were already on the plane.
Now they are scrapping thousands of summer flights in a bid to avoid last-minute cancellations.
It said it wants to “build additional resilience” as the aviation sector across Europe is experiencing “operational issues”.
These include air traffic control delays, staff shortages in ground handling and at airports, and increased times for identity checks of new recruits.
Recently London mayor Sadiq Khan said Brexit was to blame for the ongoing problems at UK airports
Also Steve Heapy, the CEO of airline Jet2, confronted Mr Shapps over the impact of Brexit at an emergency meeting on Friday, telling him that EU withdrawal had taken “hundreds of thousands, if not millions” of people out of the jobs market.
But asked if the government would relax post-Brexit immigration rules for aviation workers, as it did in response to shortages of HGV drivers and butchers, Mr Shapps said: “The answer can’t always be to reach for the lever marked ‘More immigration’.”
Today, another Tory this time Chief Treasury secretary Simon Clarke refused to blame Brexit for any of the issues in the aviation sector.
Sky’s Kay Burley asked Clarke: “Is Brexit to blame for the airport chaos?”
He replied: “No, the British people made their views very clear on unlimited immigration from the EU.
Burley shot back: “Is this chaos the result?”
Clarke answered: “I do not accept this is a result of Brexit.’
