The Times - UK (2022-06-08)

the times | Wednesday June 8 2022 2GM 15

News

The price of petrol and diesel has hit £
a litre in parts of the UK, prompting the
RAC to declare a “national fuel crisis”.
The average price is likely to reach £
over the summer. Government figures
show that the average price of a litre of
petrol hit 175.6p on Monday, up 6.6p in
a week. Average diesel prices increased
by 3.7p a litre to 185.3p. They are the big-
gest weekly increases since March.
The RAC said that rising oil prices
combined with the pound weakening
against the US dollar would push prices
higher. Simon Williams, the motoring
group’s fuel spokesman, said: “With
analysts predicting that oil will average
$135 a barrel for the rest of this year,
drivers need to brace themselves for
average fuel prices rocketing to £2 a
litre, which would mean a fill-up would
rise to an unbelievable £110.”
A BP garage on the A1 near Sunder-
land was selling a litre of unleaded and
diesel for 202.9p and 204.9p respective-
ly yesterday. A Gulf garage in Essex and
a forecourt on the M6 in Cumbria were
also selling fuel for more than £2 a litre.
The Treasury cut fuel duty by 5p a
litre in March but retailers have been
accused of failing to pass the reduction
on to motorists.
Louise Haigh, the shadow transport
secretary, accused the government of
spending too much time “tearing them-
selves apart” instead of tackling the
“brutal price hikes facing working
people”.
Haigh said: “Motorists are being
taken for a ride, and this hapless
government is too distracted to do any-
thing about it. The Conservative gov-
ernment needs to tackle the brutal
petrol hikes, and support Labour’s call to
put money back in the pockets of work-
ing people with an emergency budget.”
Williams urged the government to
“take drastic action to help soften the
impact for drivers from these never-
before-seen pump prices”. He added:
“The wholesale price of diesel is fast
approaching 160p a litre, which, when
you add 7p retailer margin and 20 per
cent VAT, would take the pump price
over the £2 mark.”
Last month Kwasi Kwarteng, the
business secretary, wrote to retailers “to
remind them of their responsibilities”
to pass on the 5p duty cut to motorists
after The Times revealed that fore-
courts were failing to honour nearly
half of the tax break.
In the letter he said: “The British
people are rightly expressing concern
about the pace of the increase in prices
at the forecourt, and rightly frustrated
that the chancellor’s fuel duty cut does
not appear to have been passed through
to forecourt prices in any visible or
meaningful way.”
Kwarteng said that he had asked the
Competition and Markets Authority to
closely monitor the situation at the
pumps.

British Airways passengers face a
summer of travel chaos at Heathrow,
union bosses have warned.
Hundreds of members of the GMB
and Unite unions, responsible for
staffing check-in desks and handling
ground operations for BA, have begun a
ballot on strikes this summer.
Industrial action would hit the airline
during the peak school holiday period,
when tens of thousands of Britons jet
off daily.
Nadine Houghton, a GMB officer,
said: “Staff at Heathrow have been

BA passengers face summer of chaos, Heathrow bosses warn

verbally and physically abused by

angry passengers after British Airways

staff shortages and IT failures nearly

brought the airport to a standstill.

“On top of that, they had their pay

slashed during BA’s callous fire-and-

rehire policy. Now they want that

money back. Bosses have had it back.

Heathrow ground and check-in staff

want to know why they haven’t had it

too.”

The formal ballot on industrial

action was organised after an earlier

consultative vote came out in favour. It

will close on June 23, with the result

expected the same day.

British Airways said that while the

ballot was “not surprising, given the

issues across the transport sector, it’s

extremely disappointing”, adding:

“After a deeply difficult two years,

which saw the business lose more than

£4 billion, these colleagues were of-

fered a 10 per cent payment for this

year, which was rejected.

“We remain fully committed to talks

with our trade unions about their con-

cerns and we hope that together we can

find a way to reach an agreement in the

best interests of our people and our

customers.”

The airline is said to be making plans

to deal with any disruption and has

insisted that strikes would affect less

than 50 per cent of the “customer

service team” at Heathrow. It added

that all other eligible areas of the airline

accepted the offered pay award, includ-

ing baggage handlers, engineering and

cabin crew.

Sharon Graham, the Unite general

secretary, said: “Under the cover of

Covid, British Airways used the abhor-

rent fire-and-rehire practice to reduce

check-in and ground handlers’ pay by

10 per cent. In a further disgraceful

move, BA has now restored the pay of

managers but has kept the cut for these

other workers. This is why our mem-

bers have voted overwhelmingly to

proceed to strike action.”

Yesterday Willie Walsh, director gen-

eral of the International Air Transport

Association, criticised British politi-

cians’ response to airline problems. The

former head of BA told the Paris Air

Forum that travel companies had

feared new Covid-19 restrictions.

“You have the politicians saying air-

lines should have ramped up sooner,”

he said. “No, they shouldn’t. Airlines

would have gone out of business had

they done what these idiot politicians

are saying they should have done.”

Ben Clatworthy

Drivers gear up for £2 a litre at pumps

Ben Clatworthy
Transport Correspondent

LEE THOMAS

A

irlines are

resigning

themselves to

continuing

cancellations

and widespread disruption

this summer, travel

industry sources have said

(Ben Clatworthy writes).

EasyJet axed another 60

flights yesterday, hitting

10,000 holidaymakers, and

heaping pain on those

already stranded abroad.

British Airways cancelled

120 short-haul flights to or

from its base at Heathrow,

although many passengers

had been given several

weeks’ notice.

EasyJet customers have

been worst affected by last-

minute cancellations, the

majority from Gatwick.

Those arriving at the

airport were subjected to

long delays at baggage

reclaim, describing the

scenes as chaos.

Diego Garcia Rodriguez,

32, a Spaniard who lives in

Brighton, said departing

passengers were left in

tears. at the airport.

He said: “I have seen lots

of people whose flights

have been cancelled, some

crying and stressing out,

and they only got the

news after having gone

through the security

control so they didn’t know

how to get out. There was

no information and it was

all very chaotic.”

EasyJet announced late

on Monday that it would

cancel at least 30 flights a

day in the coming weeks

because of staff shortages.

It is also warning

passengers on most flights

that food may not be

available on board.

“These airlines are flying

in the face of huge

consumer and political

criticism,” an aviation

source said. “What they

are doing is baking in

cancellations, and giving

notice where possible, to

try and limit the chaos, but

it’s not going to wash in the

long term.”

About 34,000 passengers

due to fly from Manchester

this month with Tui, the

UK’s largest tour operator,

were told their flights had

been axed.

As fears grow of a

summer of chaos, travel

agents have said they are

being inundated with calls

from holidaymakers.

Julia Lo Bue-Said, chief

executive of Advantage

Travel Partnership, whose

members are independent

travel agents, said the

situation was hideous.

“About 30 per cent of all

calls our members are

receiving now are from

customers that are reading

the headlines, have

bookings for July and

August in the school

holidays, and they are

worried,” she said.

Agents were trying to

reassure customers that “in

the vast majority of cases

flights are departing and

arriving”.

The number of Britons

flying off for half-term

holidays last week was

21 per cent higher than in

2019, she said, adding that

summer holiday bookings

were at 80 per cent of pre-

pandemic levels.

She said: “The significant

surge has created a

bottleneck in the system.

The industry is now

working really hard to

make sure that over the

next few weeks we are

building resilience and

scaling up as much as we

can from a workforce point

of view to meet customer

demand and, frankly, give

them a much better

experience in some cases

than they’re experiencing.”

Last night easyJet

apologised to customers

and said the vast majority

of its flights would take off.

A spokesman said: “EasyJet

is operating over 1,

flights today, carrying a

quarter of a million

customers. Unfortunately,

due to the ongoing

challenging operating

environment, around 60

flights to and from the UK

today have been cancelled,

many ahead of customers

arriving at the airport.”

He said it was complying

with consumer law and

issuing compensation and

refunds as required.

Grant Shapps, the

transport secretary, has

said airline passengers

should receive automatic

compensation for delayed

and cancelled flights. He

said he wanted aviation

companies to adopt a

scheme similar to that used

by the railways, which

provides quick refunds for

delayed journeys.

No end in sight to the

turbulence at airports

Passengers at Bristol

airport yesterday

endured long queues

amid delayed or

cancelled flights