Jet2 chief executive Steve Heapy has blasted the airline sector for tarnishing the image of the entire travel industry through its treatment of holidaymakers over the last three years.
The boss of Jet2holidays and Jet2.com branded the airline industry “despicable” for failing to recruit enough staff for the post-Covid bounce-back and criticised its handling of consumers during Covid.
Speaking in a panel at Travel Weekly’s Future of Travel Conference 2022, Heapy said the industry was now “on a par” with professions such as estate agents – implying the public had lost faith in the industry.
Dnata Travel Group UK and Europe chief executive Alisa Pollard, also on the panel, agreed the travel industry had “not covered itself in glory” this summer while easyJet holidays chief executive Garry Wilson said there were a number of issues at play, including Brexit and job processing delays, which contributed to airport disruptions this year.
But Heapy directed his criticism at the airline sector for the way the travel industry at large was now viewed by consumers, saying: “I think the way customers have been treated over the last three and a half years is despicable. These companies should hang their heads in shame because they have tarnished the image of the whole industry.”
He blamed partner companies in the airline sector, from airports to ground handlers, catering and cleaning firms, for this summer’s flight disruptions and the knock-on impact on they had on Jet2’s holidays.
He said: “We were fully staffed at the start of the summer and we didn’t cancel a single flight for being understaffed. We were let down by third parties. Airports, ground handlers, cleaners, caterers, you name it, they were understaffed.
“These companies did not anticipate the bounce-back; they left it too late to recruit.”
Heapy also criticised the way airlines had acted during the pandemic, in reference to the problem holidaymakers had trying to claim back refunds for flights cancelled due to Covid travel restrictions.
“The way the airline industry has acted in the last three years is nothing short of despicable,” he said, adding: “Throughout the pandemic customers got treated really badly.”
He further hit out at companies for failing to anticipate the impact Brexit would have on the labour market and the need to prepare for the shortage of staff further in advance. “Unskilled labour has dried up from Europe,” he added.
Pollard agreed the summer had been “challenging”. “It’s gone from one disappointment into another. Consumer confidence is at an all-time low,” she said, adding: “The demand is there but operationally it’s been a real challenge.”
Wilson admitted there were a “horrible few days” around the bank holiday weekend of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations in early June when problems caused by airline disruption hit the headlines.
“It was quite clear that all of these parts of that eco-system just were not lined up, whether it was the airports, the ground handlers, air traffic control. There was a lot of disruption,” he said.
But he said only 0.2% of easyJet holidays’ customers were impacted and maintained disruption “was below what you would have in a normal year”.
He stressed the time needed for the clearance process for new airline staff had been a “very big issue” affecting staff recruitment, as had Brexit, which had meant easyJet had to reject around 40% of its job applications instead of the normal rate of around 5%.
“We cannot pretend Brexit has had not had an impact for what has happened. This cannot happen in the winter,” he said, conceding: “There are a lot of lessons from it.”
EasyJet holidays is on track to carry more than 1.1 million consumers this year.
