UK airline industry appeals for action over virus crisis

The British Airline Pilots Association has called for more help and clearer guidelines from the UK Government with regard to aviation and navigating an exit from the pandemic.

Many businesses have suffered during the UK lockdowns but aviation has been particularly badly affected.

Brian Strutton, spokesperson for British Pilots, has accused the government of playing "hokey cokey" with decisions over "taking holidays" and "visiting families abroad."

The Delta variant which has been sweeping across the British Isles has created confusion and u-turns from the government over travel guidelines.

The restrictions have caused flight cancellations, which in turn have led to job losses.

Many people living near the airports rely on them for work, and have been forced to seek out different industries to work in.

Former British Airways employee, Dinesh Limbachia was left in a precarious situation which he described as "scary."

Dinesh realised that his skills and experiences were mostly limited to his work at the airport and he found he didn't have the education necessary to move into a different role.

Dinesh's son, Amar Limbachia, a former security guard at Gatwick airport found himself in a similar situation to his father and wasn't alone.

He envisaged that possibly "two thirds" of the people working at Gatwick had either been made redundant or had to retrain.

There currently doesn't appear to be any significant changes planned for opening up international travel into and out of England.