Manchester Airport: Trafford Council criticises ongoing disruption

The government and airline bosses have faced more criticism over continuing disruption at Manchester Airport.

Trafford Council, who are a shareholder in the airport, said the government response to the aviation crisis had been "lamentable".

Councillors have invited the airport's managing director Chris Woodroofe to discuss what improvements can be made.

The Department for Transport (DfT) said it had done "everything within our power" to support the industry.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service said that at a full meeting of the Labour-controlled authority, councillors concluded the government's plan at the end of June "came far too late to prevent the disruptions experienced at the beginning of the year and in April and May".

Whilst acknowledging security operations at the airport had improved, a council resolution stated that the disruption experienced was "the responsibility of airlines and private baggage handling companies".

It said many of the operators had chosen to make many of their employees redundant in 2020 and 2021 and had not accepted the extended furlough on offer, while simultaneously continuing to sell flights and holidays.

The resolution also stated the arrangements at the UK border, "where long queues to re-enter the UK have been experienced", were due to the "resourcing decisions of the UK Border Agency", which were "ultimately the responsibility of the UK government".

The council resolved to write to Mr Woodroofe to ask him to set out his plans for improving the airport's overall performance.

A Liberal Democrat addition to the resolution blamed the current situation at airports on the UK's withdrawal from the EU.

A reported 250,000 European workers have left since Brexit, creating what the Lib Dems called a "reduced pool of applicants".

In the first three months of 2022, about 72% of Manchester flights left on time, the lowest percentage of all the UK's 26 airports.

A DfT spokesman said the government had done "everything within our power to support the aviation industry, including providing £8bn to protect jobs during the pandemic, but it's now for the sector itself to make passengers can get away on their well-deserved summer holidays".

He said the department had "unveiled a 22-point plan to support the industry, including accelerated national security vetting checks to help speed up recruitment, and a temporary amnesty on airport slots to allow airlines to plan ahead and prevent last minute cancellations".

"These measures are clearly working and flight cancellations have recently fallen back to their 2019 levels following the changes which are providing passengers with more certainty," he added.

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