Virgin Atlantic’s chief executive Steve Ridgeway has stated that airlines need to better sell their services to governments and the traveling public to offset the bad press the industry received last year in light of snow and ash disruptions.
In speech at an Airports Operators Association dinner in London, Ridgway said: “Maybe the burning platform is that our sector is taken for granted by the government and by the traveling public, maybe even by ourselves — and that we need to be better at making our case.”
The disruption to passenger and cargo traffic caused by the snow storms in December and the ash clouds last April, says Steve, demonstrated how essential air services are and that governments need to realize this. He also said that the “UK must be seen as a great place to fly from, to and via.”
He warned that it could be that the snow disruption was a demonstration of something more systematically wrong with the industry, saying the snow before Christmas “serves a very timely warning to us all”. Many airlines were forced to cancel flights and lost money because of it and Ridgeway says airlines need to restore faith in their services by “delivering world class standards from door to door next time they travel”.