Travel Blame Game Damaging to Industry

“Whatever issues there are, we’re better sorting those out as an industry among ourselves rather than having a blame game for who’s responsible,” said Tanzer.

“Within the industry, open communications up and down the line really do help. If agents aren’t getting information from tour operators, tour operators not from airlines and so on, that all adds to the problem for the consumer,” he added.

Airlines UK Chief Executive Tim Alderslade, agreed with Mr Taner, saying: “I don’t blame customers who have been dragged into this one iota, it must be an incredibly difficult experience,” he said. “I agree with Mark around the importance of the sector being united, I don’t think some of the criticism we’ve seen over the past few weeks, of all parts of the sector, is particularly helpful.

“If you’re the customer, you just want this sorted out. Ultimately, you don’t care who is to blame. We’ve seen comments from some airports about the handling agents, I just don’t think it’s particularly helpful. And neither is it to blame the government. We are where we are, we can’t turn the clock back to furlough or the decisions that were taken during Covid.”