British Airways, EasyJet and FDI are taking advantage of staff shortages to fly to EU crews without a British work visa as they struggle with staff shortages.
Airlines borrow EU-registered aircraft under so-called global leases because they struggle with the biggest shortage of registered staff.
This practice means that they can circumvent Brexit’s immigration rules, which would prevent airlines from flying with EU workers without a UK work visa.
According to industry sources, British Airways has borrowed four aircraft from Finnair and four from its sister airline, Iberia, instead of using one of the 18 UK-registered Airbus aircraft stocked by the national carrier.
EasyJet has eight aircraft “leased for service” from Gatwick and one aircraft from Bristol from Smart Links Airlines in Latvia.
TUI borrows five SmartLynx aircraft to operate from Gatwick, Manchester and Doncaster airports, as well as two aircraft from Lithuanian airline Avion Express Flights from Gatwick.
Transport Secretary Grant Shaps has so far opposed demands from airlines, airports and groundhandling service providers to allow the influx of foreign workers to ease the employment crisis that has plagued UK airports this year.
The presidents want the government to consider offering temporary visas similar to those issued to fruit pickers, musicians and religious people to fill labor shortages.
However, Shapses insisted that “more immigration” was not the answer to the problems of the airline industry.
Understandably, airline executives last Friday warned Transport Department officials that airlines would use an increasing number of foreign-flagged aircraft only with the structural number of aircraft registered in the UK if ministers did not change immigration laws.
It is estimated that more than 2.5 million passengers will enter and leave the UK on three overseas-registered airlines operating overseas.
Airlines have stated that “full service leasing” is a common practice in the industry. There is no evidence that she is in breach of any UK immigration law.
A source at the airline said it was not a viable way to get European labor to the UK because it was much more expensive and “just a fallback because the industry needs short-term capacity”.
Another viewer said it was not always more expensive, but depended on supply and demand for surplus aircraft among competing airlines.
A spokesman for British Airways said: “In order to give our customers access to as many destinations as possible, our partner airlines operate some European flights on our behalf as we continue to resume operations.”
EasyJet and TUI declined to comment.
However, Mr Shapps is considering relaxing rules that prevent airlines from reducing their schedules at airports with limited capacity, such as Heathrow and Gatwick, where take-off and landing slots are in high demand and worth tens of millions of pounds each.
The Minister of Transport has already criticized carriers for selling seats on flights they have not been able to operate.
DfT officials issued an emergency recommendation this weekend over the “70:30 rules” this summer. This could mean that airlines have to fly 70% of their flights at airports with limited capacity or hand over slots to an industry coordinator.
According to an industry source, the advice was handed over to airlines last Friday and was given until Monday to respond.
Last week, for the first time in history, Gatwick limited the number of flights that could take off and land at the airport to handle airline cancellations on the same day.
It sets a ceiling of 825 in July and 850 in August, which means that up to 4,000 flights will have to be cut, disrupting hundreds of thousands of Britons during the summer holidays.
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