Travel

MPs reacted with incredulity when an HM Passport Office executive said that 55,000 applications are delayed beyond the 10-week stretch that prospective travellers are advised to allow.Thomas Greig, director of passports, citizenship and civil registration was answering questions from members of the Home Affairs Select Committee.The committee chair, Labour’s Dame Diana Johnson, said MPs’ offices had been “inundated with people who are struggling to get their passports”.HM Passport Office is processing record numbers of passports since international travel restrictions were lifted by the UK in March 2022.Mr Greig said that one in 10 of the 550,000 passport applications currently pending had been with HM Passport Office for over the 10-week allowance for processing.Recommended“I have to say I’m fairly shocked at those figures you’ve just described,” said Dame Diana.“That is completely unacceptable.“This is not rocket science, is it? I’ve looked back at the experience in the Passport Office over the last 10 years.“There’s been criticism from the National Audit Office of your ability to project and plan.“Why have you failed so miserably?”Mr Greig said: “We have achieved record output and we have produced more passports than we ever have.“So a lot of our planning was directed towards that.“We’ve brought in increased numbers of staff to deal with these applications.“There have been a smaller proportion of applicants for whom it has taken longer than we would have liked.“We have put measures in place so they could contact us and where they do need their passport urgently we are able to provide it.”MPs have access to a special passport unit in Portcullis House, where the hearing took place, as well as a special Home Office telephone link.But Tim Loughton, Conservative MP for East Worthing and Shoreham, said: “We don’t see our staff very much these days because they’re sitting in queues in the passport unit here or they’re permanently on the telephone.“The productivity of most MPs’ offices has gone down extraordinarily, more than anything else I have ever known in 25 years in parliament, because we are dealing with constituents who are desperate to get their passports that they applied for 10 weeks or more before.”In February 2018 the then-immigration minister, Caroline Nokes, told parliament: “We currently process 99.9 per cent of straightforward applications within three weeks, and on average, customers making a non-priority application can expect their passport to be issued seven working days after the application is made.”In April 2021, the normal three-week processing time for a renewal or new passport was extended to 10 weeks.Around half of the overdue passport applications are “available to decision-makers” – ie in a position to be issued, rather than awaiting further information or documentation.The chair also said the committee was “incredibly disappointed” at the absence of a representative of Teleperformance – the French service company that operates the Passport Adviceline.She said: “We think this is extremely out of order that they have not found time to come and be scrutinised at this committee.“They have a contract with the Home Office, and I hope the Home Office will be making it very clear that not attending a select committee is something that is not right and that they should make themselves available when we have asked to question them.Recommended“I hope, Mr Greig, you will take that message back.”Earlier, Simon Clark, chief secretary to the Treasury, told the BBC Today programme: “If you look now at the situation with, for example, passports, there is clear evidence that the Home Office is now totally on top of that situation, and that the long backlogs that were seen with that explosion of demand as people returned to travel are now abating.” More

Airlines have been ordered by the government to cancel flights for July and August now to “de-risk the summer” for tens of thousands of passengers.The Department for Transport (DfT) and Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) have warned carriers to trim schedules now to avoid the misery of flights cancelled at short notice.In a joint letter to airlines, they say: “Cancellations at the earliest possibility to deliver a more robust schedule are better for consumers than late-notice on-the-day cancellations.”The instruction means that many Britons with trips already booked for July, August and September will find their flights cancelled. They will need to choose other departures – which should be at the expense of the airline that grounds their flight – or cancel for a refund.The letter appears squarely aimed at easyJet. Britain’s biggest budget airline is currently cancelling around 60 flights per day, the majority of them to and from London Gatwick airport. While easyJet has introduced some longer-term cancellations, extending into July, many flights are grounded at a day’s notice or even less.Wizz Air, the third-biggest European budget carrier (after Ryanair and easyJet) has also been making short-notice cancellations.Richard Moriarty, chief executive of the CAA, and Rannia Leontaridi, director-general for aviation at the DfT, tell the airlines: “The outcomes for too many consumers recently have been unacceptable. It is imperative that we see an improvement to the resilience in the system, planning and scheduling to reflect the available capacity ahead of the summer period.“Our expectation is that you and all those involved in delivering aviation services will take all possible steps to prepare for and manage passenger demand that helps to avoid the unacceptable scenes we have recently witnessed.“We all share a common goal to de-risk the summer period but we believe more needs to be done to give us all better assurance that this goal will be delivered.“It’s important that each airline reviews afresh its plans for the remainder of the summer season until the end of September to develop a schedule that is deliverable.“Your schedules must be based on the resources you and your contractors expect to have available, and should be resilient for the unplanned and inevitable operational challenges that you will face.”Overall, cancellations of flights to, from and within the UK are running at close to 200 per day.More than half are on British Airways, which has cancelled 16,500 over the summer to align its schedule with available resources. While the cancellations have a significant effect on seat availability – especially from UK regional airports – they are notified weeks in advance.For the first time since the cancellation crisis began, the CAA and DfT have ordered airlines to comply with European air passengers’ rights rules.The Independent has received many examples of carriers failing to offer flights on alternative airlines, and making it difficult for passengers to claim the compensation and other costs that are due to them.Mr Moriarty and Ms Leontaridi write: “We expect that when there are unavoidable cancellations, delays and denied boarding cases that passengers are promptly, clearly and empathetically communicated with.“This should include informing passengers of their consumer rights in relation to refund and compensation routes if applicable. Also when dealing with operational challenges, we expect you to have the processes and resources in place to keep consumers informed, such as having sufficiently staffed call centres and user-friendly digital channels to ensure refunds and compensation are paid in good time.“If airlines cannot re-route passengers on their own services or partner airlines on the same day they should identify re-routing options on alternative airlines.“It is also important that where passengers are delayed they receive suitable subsistence and, if they need to stay overnight, suitable accommodation promptly.“If there is evidence that an airline is systematically letting consumers down when it comes to those rights, the CAA will not hesitate to escalate matters with its enforcement role.”The DfT and CAA say the expectations have received a “high level of support” from the airlines.The letter ends: “Both the Department and the CAA will play our full roles in our aim of ensuring the recovery for air travel is a success.“Let’s start with working together to make sure the summer is a great success for the British public.” More

Travel restrictions that were “disproportionate to the risks to public health” and caused severe damage to the UK’s aviation industry, the Transport Select Committee has said.In a wide-ranging and highly critical report, MPs say the government’s frequently changing Covid-19 rules “were not based on scientific consensus”. The report states that the measures caused “a severe financial shock to the sector”, without significant health benefits.But the government insists the travel restrictions “were in place for no longer than absolutely necessary”.Soon after the start of the coronavirus pandemic, in mid-March 2020, the UK was unique in dropping all arrival restrictions.But by June of that year, as other countries were opening up, ministers went the opposite extreme with a mandatory quarantine of 14 days for all arrivals to the UK (except from Ireland).Frequent short-notice changes, coupled with the introduction of hotel quarantine and an incoherent system of “traffic light” restrictions continued for the following 21 months.All travel measures were eventually removed in March 2022.The committee, chaired by the senior Conservative MP Huw Merriman, is scathing about the measures imposed by the transport secretary, Grant Shapps.“The way in which the government introduced international travel restrictions during the pandemic was inconsistent, confusing industry and passengers,” it concluded.“The aviation industry, which connects the UK to the world, experienced severe economic difficulties due to government restrictions that were not based on scientific consensus.”Traffic light restrictions are described as “opaque, ambiguous and inconsistent”. The report says “the rationale behind decision-making on the classification of individual countries as ‘red’, ‘amber’ or ‘green’ was not made available”.On hotel quarantine, the MPs find “no evidence” of any benefit compared with self-isolation at home.They also deplored the frequent changes in rules, saying: “Restrictions changed more than 15 times between 2020 and 2022.”In fact, if the many “traffic light” moves are included, changes run into the hundreds.A spokesperson for the Department for Transport rejected the committee’s findings, saying: “Our priority was protecting public health, and these measures bought vital time for the rollout of our successful booster programme as we responded to new and concerning variants.“But we also ensured they were in place for no longer than absolutely necessary, and the UK was the first country in the G7 to remove all travel restrictions.“In future, the government’s default approach will be to use the least stringent measures, to minimise the impact on travel as far as possible and these will only be implemented in extreme circumstances.”Tim Alderslade, chief executive of Airlines UK, said: “The sector has been through its worst-ever crisis and it will take several years to deal with the debt airlines had to take on to make it through the pandemic with no passengers.”Britain’s pre-eminence in European aviation has been lost. For decades up to the start of 2020, London Heathrow was the busiest in Europe.But the UK’s main hub began 2022 in 10th place, according to Airports Council International, behind both main airports in Moscow, the two Istanbul airports and even the resort of Antalya in Turkey. More

Travel restrictions that were “disproportionate to the risks to public health” caused severe damage to the UK’s aviation industry, the Transport Select Committee has said.In a wide-ranging and highly critical report, MPs say the government’s frequently changing Covid-19 rules “were not based on scientific consensus”. The measures caused “a severe financial shock to the sector” without significant health benefits.But the government insists the travel restrictions “were in place for no longer than absolutely necessary”.Soon after the start of the coronavirus pandemic, in mid-March 2020, the UK was unique in dropping all arrival restrictions.But by June of that year, as other countries were opening up, ministers went the opposite extreme with a mandatory quarantine of 14 days for all arrivals to the UK (except from Ireland).Frequent short-notice changes, coupled with the introduction of hotel quarantine and an incoherent system of “traffic light” restrictions continued for the following 21 months.All travel measures were removed in March 2022.The committee, chaired by the senior Conservative MP Huw Merriman, is scathing about the measures imposed by the transport secretary, Grant Shapps.“The way in which the government introduced international travel restrictions during the pandemic was inconsistent, confusing industry and passengers,” it concluded.“The aviation industry, which connects the UK to the world, experienced severe economic difficulties due to government restrictions that were not based on scientific consensus.”Traffic light restrictions are described as “opaque, ambiguous and inconsistent”. The report says “the rationale behind decision-making on the classification of individual countries as ‘red’, ‘amber’ or ‘green’ was not made available”.On hotel quarantine, the MPs find “no evidence” of any benefit compared with self-isolation at home.They also deplored the frequent changes in rules, saying: “Restrictions changed more than 15 times between 2020 and 2022.”In fact, if the many “traffic light” moves are included, changes run into the hundreds.A spokesperson for the Department for Transport rejected the committee’s findings, saying: “Our priority was protecting public health, and these measures bought vital time for the rollout of our successful booster programme as we responded to new and concerning variants.“But we also ensured they were in place for no longer than absolutely necessary, and the UK was the first country in the G7 to remove all travel restrictions.“In future, the government’s default approach will be to use the least stringent measures, to minimise the impact on travel as far as possible and these will only be implemented in extreme circumstances.”Tim Alderslade, chief executive of Airlines UK, said: “The sector has been through its worst-ever crisis and it will take several years to deal with the debt airlines had to take on to make it through the pandemic with no passengers.”Britain’s pre-eminence in European aviation has been lost. For decades up to the start of 2020, London Heathrow was the busiest in Europe.But the UK’s main hub began 2022 in 10th place, according to Airports Council International, behind both main airports in Moscow, the two Istanbul airports and even the resort of Antalya in Turkey. More