SAVE SUMMER! WORK LONGER TO FIX FLIGHT CHAOS

Minister urges airport staff to "be more productive' in run-up to holiday season

- Chris Riches

AIRPORT workers can save the nation's summer - by working overtime to get more flights off the ground.

Business Minister Paul Scully yesterday made the suggestion as a solution to the UK's holiday chaos.

Travellers are facing an of stress summer after Gatwick Airport axed 4,000 flights and imposed its first ever cap on trip numbers in its 100-year history.

But Mr Scully said staff can "be more productive" during the holiday season.

He said: "We want to work really closely with the airports and the airlines to make sure that they are doing everything they can and see what more we can do.

"There is a record number of vacancies - 1.3 million vacancies across the country in all manner of sectors. But there are also people who recalibrated what they want to do when they were on furlough.

"We want to make sure that those people that are not necessarily working full-time, through Universal Credit we can get them back in to work to be more productive, if that suits them, and obviously match them up with the sectors where there are those vacancies."

When asked whether this meant people working longer hours, he said: "I'm not talking about going out forcing people to do anything. But we just want to make sure that those people that want to work longer can do."

Bosses at Gatwick stressed the drastic flight changes will help passengers "experience a more reliable and better standard of service".

But it means 800,000 people will have to find alternative travel arrangements if they want to jet abroad in July and August.