Staffing levels at airports must be addressed to meet customer expectations, the industry regulator reiterated at the ITT conference.
Paul Smith, group director of consumers and markets at the CAA, said the aviation sector was back to around 70% to 80% of pre-pandemic levels.
He said bookings are recovering as consumers become more confident but he said service levels recently, particularly during Easter, were not up to standard.
On Tuesday, the CAA and Department for Transport wrote a joint letter to the airports and airlines outlining five areas of improvement expected of them, including ensuring better resilience and resourcing levels to meet schedules.
“There are steady and growing future bookings,” Smith said. “Yes, consumers are using refund credit notes organisations issued during the pandemic, but there is a growing book of future bookings.
“Consumers have been a little hesitant about booking far out, but gradually we are seeing that fall away.
“Having said that there are clearly some really big challenges – the staffing levels particularly on the aviation side – to meet consumer expectations.
“Unfortunately, we have seen too many experiences over the last few weeks, and over the Easter period, which were not where we would want them to be.
“The labour challenges are there but we have to work as a sector, particularly on the airline side and supply chain, to get to a better level of resilience and a better experience for consumers.
“We have also unfortunately, unacceptably, seen some really poor experiences for disabled and less mobile passengers. That’s unacceptable and that needs to improve moving forward.
“Clearly as a sector we need to do better over the coming months. It’s pretty clear that the British public are going to have a summer holiday.”
Smith said the industry is in a “much better place” now with processing refunds from airlines to operators following challenges at the start of the Covid pandemic.
He said refunds are now being dealt with more quickly but said the CAA continues to argue it does not have adequate powers to enforce regulations on refunds and passenger compensation.
“The government has consulted on additional powers for us to enforce and take quicker action,” he said. “At the moment it takes two or three years through court action.”
Photo credit: Arif Gardner