Airlines hope for better summer after spending to boost resilience

Receive free Airlines updates

We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest Airlines news every morning.

Standing on the edge of the runway at London’s Gatwick airport on a busy morning last week offered a glimpse into the fine margins that air travel relies on.

A plane lands or takes off every 62 seconds from the world’s busiest single runway airport, with aircraft queueing on the ground and stacked in the air as far as the eye can make out. As soon as one jet has cleared the runway then the next is already on its way in a complex and tightly choreographed operation that leaves little room for error.

Little wonder that when a single part of the fragile aviation ecosystem wobbles the disruption can be spectacular. IT failures, staff shortages, even a runway melting in the heat, passengers in Europe have seen it all since travel restarted in earnest last summer.

Now, companies are under pressure to deliver a smoother getaway as the busiest part of the summer begins, with 10 per cent more flights scheduled this week compared with the same period last year, according to air traffic manager Eurocontrol.

There have been some early blips, including air traffic control delays and strikes. Meanwhile, easyJet’s decision this week to pre-emptively cancel 1,700 flights evoked memories of the worst days of last summer, when passengers suffered a barrage of cancellations, queues and delays as the industry struggled to expand in time to meet resurgent demand for travel.

But travel industry bosses are confident this year will be smoother, and there are encouraging signs. In the UK, flight cancellations during the first-half of the year hit 1.5 per cent, their lowest level since 2019, according to industry data provider Cirium. That contrasts with more than 5 per cent in the worst weeks last year.

This is partly a result of simply having enough time to hire, train and security clear staff to get them on the ground. Ground handling company Menzies, which offers crucial support services from refuelling to baggage handling at airports, has 40,000 staff this year, up from 18,000 at the height of the pandemic. “It is [about] having the right resources trained and on duty,” chief executive Philipp Joeinig said.

But some airlines have chosen to increase their operational resilience to levels considered unnecessary before the pandemic, including having back-up crew and planes on standby.

London-listed ultra-low cost airline Wizz Air has invested £90mn on making its operations “more resilient and agile,” according to its UK managing director Marion Geoffroy. Wizz will this summer have 11 per cent extra aircraft capacity, and 10 per cent extra crew to provide a buffer against disruption.

This can be expensive and counterintuitive for low-cost airlines, which have business models built to strip out every possible cost and pass the savings on to consumers through low ticket prices. But airlines have seen the alternative, and it isn’t pretty. Wizz is working to rebuild its reputation after it was branded the UK’s worst airline by consumer group Which? following last year’s travel problems.

In the US Southwest Airlines has promised this year to invest $1.3bn — 25 per cent more than last year — in information technology after a December blizzard triggered an operational meltdown, while British Airways owner IAG says it has spent “a significant sum” on its systems after a run of high-profile IT failures.

Industry executives say the extra costs are one of many factors behind higher air fares this year, which have risen at more than twice the rate of inflation.

For now, customers appear willing to pay. But if the rebound in travel cools and economic uncertainty eats into demand, will airlines be tempted to look at the spending on extra resilience to cut costs so they can lower ticket prices and stimulate demand for flights?

One senior executive believes that some extra resilience will be permanently baked into operations, but higher staffing and operational costs will inevitably be trimmed back a little once things are running smoothly again.

Another industry figure said it could be hard to persuade management teams or a board to back spending on “unsexy” things, rather than on updating cabins or ordering more modern aircraft.

But they also offered a warning for anyone thinking of cutting back. “It can be tempting to spend it on quicker wins,” they said. “But then you regret it when something goes wrong.”

philip.georgiadis@ft.com