Low-cost airline Jet2 said airports were “woefully ill-prepared and ill-equipped” for the number of people wanting to fly in recent months
It said it was directly affected by “inexcusable” major disruptions in the airline industry and its suppliers.
Thousands of flights have been canceled and delayed due to staff shortages.
The airline said customers should have had a “much worse experience” than they should have had.
Passengers have been hit by flight delays, cancellations, long queues, baggage-handling problems and a lack of in-flight catering.
Chief Executive Philip Meeson said: “Many suppliers were woefully unprepared and under-resourced for the volume of customers they could reasonably expect.
“Inexcusable considering our flights have been on sale for many months and our load factors are quite normal.”
He called customer service, long queues at the security check, lack of staff and traffic jams at baggage handling “horrible”.
“The resulting airport congestion and frequent lack of in-flight catering have each contributed to a much poorer experience at the beginning and end of our customers’ vacations,” he added.
“This difficult return to normal operations is simply due to the lack of planning, preparedness and unwillingness to invest on the part of many airports and associated suppliers.”
The airline added that pre-tax losses for the most recent financial year widened to £388.8m compared to losses of £341.3m a year earlier.
Jet2 added: “The Group’s performance for the financial year ended 31 March 2023 is very dependent on how quickly the broader aviation sector returns to some degree of stability, as well as the strength of bookings for the remainder of the summer and the second half of the fiscal year, a period for which we still have limited visibility.”
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