The holiday company said customers had to endure a “much poorer experience” than they should have, citing “often appalling customer service”, long queues, baggage handling problems, delays and the lack of on-board airport and ground suppliers. catering supplies. Thousands of British travelers have seen their flights canceled in recent weeks – many at short notice – as the airline industry faces staff shortages and rising demand following the pandemic. Executive chairman Philip Meeson said: “Most of our 10 key UK airports are ill-prepared and under-resourced for the volume of customers they could reasonably expect, as are other suppliers such as caterers and PRM (passengers with reduced mobility) airport providers. “Unforgivable considering our flights have been on sale for many months and our load factors are pretty normal.” “This difficult return to normal operation has occurred simply because of a lack of planning, preparedness and reluctance to invest by many airports and related suppliers,” he added. Jet2 said it had been “immediately affected” by the disruption and said this year’s performance would depend on how quickly the aviation sector returns to “some level of stability”, as well as the number of bookings going forward. Read more: easyJet reported for treatment of passengers with canceled flights The group reported statutory pre-tax profits of £388.8m in the year to March, up from £341.3m a year earlier. It came as the owner of Manchester, London Stansted and East Midlands airports reported losses of £320m over the same period, with passenger numbers at just a third of pre-pandemic levels. The group served 20.5 million passengers, which was more than three times the previous year when the COVID lockdowns had an impact. Listen to and subscribe to The Ian King Business Podcast here. Manchester Airports Group (MAG) has said its combined losses for the past two years are £694m. It said that, like all airports, it “has faced challenges in increasing staffing levels quickly enough to meet this returning demand, causing some periods of disruption at our airports”. However, MAG said it had “welcomed hundreds of new colleagues to the business”, adding: “We expect to have the resources we need ahead of the busy summer season.”
