Flying Circus?
The Bottom Line
BBC
4.6 • 606 Ratings
🗓️ 15 June 2023
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
As Covid restrictions were eased last year, the demand to travel abroad by air overtook the readiness of the industry to cope, leading to thousands of flights being cancelled and enormous queues at several airport terminals because of a shortage of staff across the board from security to baggage handlers and flight attendants. What can passengers expect this year and has the industry been able to address the problems it experienced last year to provide a smooth passenger experience this year? Evan Davis and guests discuss.
GUESTS
Willie Walsh, Director General, International Air Transport Association, Former Chief Executive, IAG and British Airways
Tim Hawkins, Chief of Staff, Manchester Airports Group
Sally Gethin, Independent Aviation and Travel Analyst and Commentator
Produced in Partnership with The Open University.
PRODUCTION TEAM
Producers: Julie Ball and Simon Tulett Researcher: Marianna Brain Editor: China Collins Sound: Rod Farquhar Production Co-ordinator: Brenda Brown
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:05.0 | Hello, welcome. |
| 0:06.0 | This is the time of year where you might have holidays in mind, sun cream, white fluffy sand and turquoise waters, |
| 0:13.4 | perhaps an adventure or the trip of a lifetime, but hopefully not this. |
| 0:18.5 | Heathrow Airport has told airlines to stop selling summer tickets |
| 0:22.1 | as the UK's biggest airport struggles to cope with the upsurgeon air travel. |
| 0:26.5 | The holiday giant Tui has cancelled 200 of its flights from Manchester Airport in June, |
| 0:31.9 | which will affect more than 30,000 people. |
| 0:35.4 | The cases are packed, we're all ready to to go and we've received a text last night at |
| 0:40.0 | 730 to say that the holiday had been cancelled. Some of last year's headlines there. If the pandemic |
| 0:46.8 | was a horror show for the aviation industry, the post-pandemic was a nightmare for many passengers. |
| 0:53.0 | The industry struggled to get itself back in full |
| 0:55.9 | working order last year. Thousands of flights delayed or cancelled in the UK and abroad. I had one |
| 1:02.0 | return flight cancelled last summer literally while I was sitting on the plane of my outward flight |
| 1:07.3 | waiting for it to push back. So what about summer 2023? I have an observation |
| 1:13.3 | and a question. The observation is, things so far seem to have been much better this year than last |
| 1:20.0 | year. The question is, is that right? How come? And also, what are we in for? And I have three guests to discuss the industry's |
| 1:29.5 | readiness for this summer, as well as its recovery from the sledgehammer that was the pandemic. |
| 1:34.1 | Let's meet them one by one now. First up is a titan of the industry, Willie Walsh, now Director |
| 1:40.1 | General of Ayrta, the International Air Transport Association, which represents airlines. |
| 1:46.2 | But for 15 years, of course, before that, he was chief executive of British Airways and then |
| 1:51.4 | its parent, IAG. And he joined us on the line from Geneva and Switzerland. And, Willie, it's very |
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