Millions of passengers at risk of flight cancellations under Labour plans

 Millions of passengers face flight cancellations this summer under Labour’s plans to combat jet fuel shortages, Britain’s busiest airports have warned. 

Heathrow and Gatwick are among airports understood to have written to ministers opposing a proposal to allow airlines to scrap flights in advance without risk of punishment.

As well as causing disruption, airports fear this could also trigger a jump in fares as holidaymakers are left chasing fewer seats. 

In written responses to a week-long consultation on the contingency plans, airports have argued that existing “use it or lose it” rules already provide sufficient leeway for carriers to scrap flights should they run short of fuel.

Airlines are allowed to mothball up to 20pc of their valuable takeover slots while retaining the right to fly them the following season.

At Gatwick, for example, airlines can already scrap as many as 25,000 summer flights or around five million seats with impunity.

Labour’s plans to ease these rules would permit cancellations beyond that level.

Across Britain, adjusting the limits could pave the way for more than 100,000 flight cancellations involving tens of millions of seats, many of them already booked.

The Government is expected to announce detailed proposals for coping with a possible shortage of jet fuel as early as this week.

The Department for Transport said on May 2 that the contingency plans would allow airlines to merge flights on routes with multiple trips to the same destination.

This means passengers could be moved from their original bookings to a similar alternative to save fuel.

Airlines have suggested that people could be accommodated on other services the same day to avoid disruption, though consumer group Which? has said that may not be the case.

Proposal ‘would affect millions’

Airports UK, which represents more than 50 airports, said Airport Coordination Limited, which manages the allocation of slots, had made clear that airlines would not be penalised for flights that could not take off because of a lack of fuel.

A spokesman said: “We are supportive of government efforts to plan for future contingencies. But we are not there yet and supply is not an issue.

“Our view is that the existing mechanisms will suffice for the time being. We haven’t heard anything that would suggest that there is a need to go any further.”

One airport insider said airports were concerned that if the Government were to relax regulations too far, airline chiefs would have carte blanche to rip up summer schedules. 

That would open the way for carriers to scrap routes deemed unprofitable because of the jump in fuel costs after the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, rather than in response to an actual fuel shortage.

IAG, the owner of British Airways, said on Friday that it expected its airlines to operate the whole of the summer timetable, while easyJet issued what it called a “book with confidence promise” and said it intended to operate a full schedule.

The insider said: “The airlines have been at pains to make clear that there is no fuel shortage, as has the Government.

So why would it be necessary to clear the way for potential cancellations that would impact millions of people?”

The Government said that while there are no indications of fuel shortages at present, the situation was “evolving”.

Saudi Aramco, the world’s biggest oil company, warned on Monday that the world’s jet fuel stocks could fall to “critically low levels” ahead of summer if the Strait of Hormuz remains closed.

A Department for Transport spokesman said: “It’s only right we plan ahead to ensure protections and mitigations are in place so airlines can get ahead of any problems and lock in schedules which work for passengers and prevent last-minute disruption.”

The consultation into potential changes is now closed, the spokesman added, with responses from airlines and airports now being analysed. Any changes to the resulting legislation will be temporary.