Cardiff Airport not expecting major summer flight delays
- Published
Cardiff Airport believes it was a "good employer" during the Covid pandemic
Cardiff Airport has said it does not expect the flight delays and cancellations other UK airports fear this summer due to staff shortages.
Chief Executive Spencer Birns said Heathrow, Edinburgh, Bristol and Birmingham airports were predicting "major issues" and "heavy challenges".
"We're expecting to continue to provide a good service," Mr Birns said.
In May, hundreds of TUI airline passengers faced lengthy flight delays to and from Cardiff Airport.
Cardiff was also one of the airports affected by Wizz Air cancellations over the Platinum Jubilee weekend.
Mr Birns said such disruption was "heart breaking" when it happens, but amounted to less than 1% of flights.
Much of the air industry has been been struggling to replace staff laid off during the pandemic who have since taking jobs in other industries.
"I was on a call yesterday where we heard airports like Heathrow are expecting they will have major issues all the way through August," Mr Birns told the Senedd's Public Accounts Committee.
"Airports like Edinburgh are also expecting heavy challenges, and airports like Bristol are expecting heavy challenges, along with Birmingham.
"From our side, we're not expecting heavy challenges, we're expecting to continue to provide a good service."
Hundreds of British Airways workers at Heathrow Airport last week voted to go on strike over pay
Referring to delays, like those suffered by TUI passengers in May, Mr Birns said: "The queuing times have not been long at Cardiff, the biggest disruption at Cardiff has ultimately been where there's been the odd flight cancelled that's been then making the news [with] long delays and customers being really upset."
He called such incidents "heart breaking", but said "in the grand scheme of things, it's less than 1%" of flights" that were seriously disrupted.
Out of 3,436 flights using the airport in April and May, six were cancelled and seven were delayed more than three hours, Mr Birns told the committee.
Cardiff Airport received an £85m bailout from its owner the Welsh government last year, which Mr Birns previously said had kept it afloat.
The business did not make staff redundant during the pandemic and its chairman Wayne Harvey told Senedd members that he believed it had been a "good employer" during the crisis.
"As a consequence, there's been a great deal of goodwill from the team", which helped the airport's ability to serve customers and to recruit, he said.
Additional disruption is expected at Heathrow Airport after about 700 workers, who are mostly check-in staff, last week voted in favour of industrial action.