UK visa stance blasted by EasyJet boss amid travel chaos

Johan Lundgren, the CEO of budget airline EasyJet, has blasted the British government’s refusal to allow more UK visas for EU cabin crew and ground handling staff. Amid ongoing travel chaos following a spate of flight cancellations, Lundgren argued that easing UK immigration restrictions would ‘ease the pressure on aviation’.

Airlines and airports have faced weeks of travel chaos as worker shortages and hiring difficulties continue to plague the aviation industry. Despite these challenges, the UK government has allegedly ignored industry requests to relax UK visa rules to allow more EU citizens into Britain to fill the gaps.

Lundgren said: “Our requests for intervention are not something that the UK government have responded to positively.”

Exemptions made elsewhere

EasyJet’s CEO said: “We know that there are exemptions being made to allow other groups of workers that are coming in, ballet dancers, circus artists, bakers and so on, but not for aviation staff. It would help if you could get the visa operation sorted out, of course it would relieve pressure.”

However, Lundgren claims that government ministers seemingly have no plans to relax UK visa rules for the aviation industry. “That is not something that we have seen that they feel inclined to do at this moment in time,” he said.

EasyJet is reportedly struggling to find enough domestic staff to fill vacancies as chronic worker shortages bite across the economy and unemployment in June remained steady at 3.8%.

“The level of people that all of the industry is recruiting from has become smaller, partly also because we don’t have the same amount of EU nationals available,” Lundgren said.

He added: “In terms of the government, we will continue to work with them to make sure the sector remains an attractive place to work and to make sure there remains enough people that we can recruit from.”

Problems on the continent

EasyJet said that it’s not only the UK where challenges are mounting. Problems are reportedly increasing on the continent too amid the rebound in demand for foreign travel after COVID-19 restrictions were lifted. However, the airline said: “The issues in the UK are bigger than they are across Europe.”

Lundgren’s comments come after EasyJet reported a £133 million financial hit from disruption to air travel between April and June 2022, leading to a pre-tax loss of £114 million for the second quarter of the year.

EasyJet was one of the worst hit by recent travel turmoil, cancelling approximately 10,000 flights from its summer schedule in June.

The airline’s chief operating officer departed in June following weeks of disruption and further last-minute flight cancellations, which have damaged EasyJet’s reputation for reliability and customer service. 

Operations normalising

Despite the UK government’s refusal to relax UK visa rules, Lundgren said that EasyJet’s day-to-day operations are beginning to return to normal having operated 3,100 flights on the first weekend of the school summer holidays, without any cancellations.

The travel chaos in recent weeks, encapsulated by lengthy queues, flight delays and cancellations, did spark rows between airports and airlines who each blamed the other for the turmoil.

Lundgren said that EasyJet is discussing compensation with airports such as Gatwick that have sought to cap flight numbers in an effort to ease travel disruption. He said: “In terms of potential compensation, I mean it’s definitely something that we will be discussing individually with the operators and our partners.”

The EasyJet CEO declined to disclose any further details.

Workpermit.com can help with Sponsor Licences

If you need help with employing Skilled Workers and help to apply for a Sponsor Licence, including complying with your Sponsor Licence obligations, workpermit.com can help.

For more information and advice on Sponsor licences, please contact us on 0344 991 9222 or at london@workpermit.com(link sends e-mail).