Grant Shapps urges airlines to ‘get reliability back’

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has urged airlines to “get reliability back into the system again”.

He made the comment as passengers have suffered major disruption in recent weeks.

Travellers have faced long queues at airports such as Birmingham, Heathrow and Manchester.

British Airways continues to cancel around 100 daily flights due to staff shortages.

EasyJet cancelled hundreds of flights in the run-up to Easter.

Mr Shapps said airlines “underestimated how much demand there will be”, and a rise in coronavirus cases “would have caused problems” with “a lot of people” off work.

He told Times Radio: “I am concerned and I’m going to be meeting with some of the airlines who have been routinely cancelling.

“I’m sure it’s in their interest as it is (for) the travelling public to see them get their schedules back together, and I’m meeting with them this week to understand their plans to bring the schedules back together.

“We need to get reliability back into the system again.”