Britain has set out plans to cut the likelihood of last-minute flight cancellations caused by any fuel shortages.
The contingency preparations are designed to give families greater confidence when travelling this northern summer by enabling air lines to plan realistically and lock in schedules earlier so that people are less likely to be affected by short notice changes at the airport.
While UK airlines say they are not currently facing supply issues, the government is consulting with the industry in order to act quickly if needs be.
These temporary measures would allow airlines to consolidate sched ules on routes where there are multiple flights to the same destination on the same day. Instead of cancelling flights at the last minute, the measures would help move passengers onto similar services much earlier, prevent running flights which have not sold a significant proportion of tickets and reduce wasted fuel from flying near empty planes.
Other measures being considered will allow airlines to pro-actively hand back a limited proportion of their allocated take-off and landing slots without losing the right to operate them the following season.
‘Hand backs’ help airlines build realistic schedules and avoid last-minute cancellations rather than flying empty ‘ghost flights’ or cancelling at short notice, putting passengers’ plans at risk, a government statement says.
