British Airlines Are Demanding Post-Brexit Immigration Rules Are Eased to Relieve Chaos Inducing Staffing Shortages

Representatives from several British airlines have reportedly demanded that the UK government ease post-Brexit immigration rules because they are holding companies back from hiring cheaper staff from Europe.

The airlines told Transport Secretary Grant Shapps at a meeting on Wednesday that a shakeup of immigration rules was necessary to relieve a critical shortage of aviation workers that have resulted in thousands of flights being cancelled.

Continued disruption is expected to last for the remainder of the summer but Shapps reportedly told the airlines and other aviation companies that their demands would likely be rejected.

Shapps called an ‘urgent’ meeting with representatives of the aviation industry following weeks of disruption that have upended travel plans for thousands of passengers.

Following the meeting, Shapps said he understood the “resourcing strains on the aviation sector but it does not excuse poor planning and overbooking flights that they cannot service.”

“The companies who have seen the most disruption need to learn from those who ran services smoothly,” he continued.

Shapps has criticised airlines and holiday companies for continuing to sell flights that they can’t operate because of staffing shortages. The industry has hit back, claiming the government didn’t do enough to support the sector throughout the pandemic when international travel was vilified and restrictions made it almost impossible to fly.

Airlines say they had no choice but to slash workforce numbers in order to survive the pandemic despite receiving billions of pounds in taxpayer-funded support. One union claims the current crisis is because government-backed loans and financial support wasn’t “hard-wired” to saving jobs.

“Our money was handed over to firms without any strings attached. Literally hundreds of millions went to the aviation sector during the pandemic and instead of bringing stability those firms have brought us chaos,” slammed the Unite unions’ general secretary Sharon Graham.

“They did not protect jobs, many just used public money to prop up their share price or pay for ‘fire and rehire’ to hammer pay and conditions. That is why we are where we are.”

Some of the worst affected airlines include British Airways, EasyJet and TUI. Lobby group Airlines UK, which represents all three carriers, said the sector was working to resolve the issues as “quickly as possible”.