Low-cost airlines in safety warning; Pilots claim expansion plans

0 Comments | Sunday Herald, The, Aug 11, 2002 | by Torcuil Crichton

LOW-cost airlines could be compromising passenger safety, pilots have claimed.

The British Airline Pilots Association (Balpa) voiced its fears as easyJet, Europe's biggest low-cost carrier, said it would cut back on routes, including flights from Edinburgh and Glasgow to Belfast, because of rapid expansion in the last year.

Balpa is currently involved in pay negotiations with easyJet, which swallowed rival no-frills airline Go! in the past week. The association said there was a "quiet concern" among pilots that they were being overstretched by massive expansion and that safety could be compromised.

Balpa has requested a meeting with easyJet chief executive Ray Webster to seek better working conditions and to express its safety concerns. The union also said that it had been told of similar concerns among pilots at Ryanair, which does not recognise trade union membership.

Both Ryanair and easyJet have strenuously denied that they would compromise safety. Although both companies get almost double the daily use from their aircraft compared to mainstream carriers such as BA, they operate a flight-time limitation system under which no pilot can fly more than 900 hours a year.

"We refute absolutely that we are compromising safety," said an easyJet official. "We would rather cancel all flights than reduce safety levels."

The company, founded by Greek tycoon Stelios Haji-Ioannou, has seen passenger numbers grow by 60% in the past year. But now it is having to cut between four and six flights a day after a lack of resources forced it to cancel 19 flights last Sunday and 28 in July.

Among the routes being considered for the chop are Edinburgh and Glasgow to Belfast. The company will reveal details of its new timetable in the coming week.

The dramatic success of low-cost carriers has led to concerns about passenger risk, though no company operating in the sector has been found to be cutting corners on safety.

The airlines were forced on to the defensive last June by claims that commercial pressures were forcing pilots to challenge air traffic controllers' instructions to save time. Both Ryanair and easyJet have denied that their pilots were involved in any such incidents.

In the past year easyJet carried 1.08 million passengers, a 62% increase on the previous year, while Ryanair carried 1.46m, a 41% increase. Ryanair saw an increase of 58% in pre-tax profits in the three months to June, the first quarter in which it carried more than a million passengers a month.

Low-cost airlines rely on quick turn-around times for their aircraft, tight control of contracts on the ground and in the air and a reliance on internet booking to keep down operating costs.

The Civil Aviation Authority, which monitors airline safety across the industry, said it had no particular concerns about low-cost airlines.

lRail passengers to and from the west coast of Scotland yesterday began to suffer from the first of a series of major delays to their journeys. An 18-week engineering programme will shut down one of the busiest lines in Europe each weekend until Christmas.

The upgrading of the west coast main line will cost an estimated (pounds) 6.3 billion to complete, and will inevitably lead to delays on services between London and Scotland.

Passengers travelling on the line between London Euston and Glasgow have been told to expect up to an extra hour on their journey times during the engineering work, which will eventually enable Virgin to run a 125mph tilting train.

The line between Hemel Hempstead and Milton Keynes will shut down each weekend between now and December 8, affecting passengers who are travelling with Virgin Trains or with Silverlink.