The organisation’s head of consumer rights and food policy Sue Davies was questioned by MPs during the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) committee hearing on Tuesday (14 June). 

She said the aviation industry and the government should "shoulder the responsibility for the chaos" regarding the delays and cancellations.

"The airlines and the government were encouraging people to travel again and we think they underestimated the capacity issues and the shortage both within the airlines and the additional services," she said.

"We are still seeing airlines appearing to book flights when they don’t know for sure if those flights are actually going to be able to go.

"There is a blatant flouting of consumer rights and a failure to put passenger interests first, which will not only impact on consumers but also their confidence to book again, so we think we need some short-term actions, but also a big overhaul of consumer rights and how they’re enforced."

Davies said there is "a real issue" of compliance with passenger rights and enforcement of consumer rights, which she claimed has "created a culture" within the industry where it is acceptable to "treat consumers poorly".

"There is a lack of immediate information," she continued. "There is a real issue in terms of enforcement and the CAA’s relationship with the airlines. We think it should be enforcing the law and it doesn’t have strong enough powers at the moment.

"There should be stronger fining powers. The CAA is not standing up for consumer interests or being proactive enough and that is leading to this culture where there are many well known names that feel able to flout consumer law."