School holidays changes urged as airlines told 'do the right thing' by Transport Secretary

A Labour minister has called on airlines to "do the right thing" and cut prices during school holidays.

But Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander admitted there was little the Government could do to force travel firms to drive down fares. It comes after Education Colleague Bridget Phillipson previously vowed to confront travel industry chiefs in a bid to stop kids skipping school.

There is growing alarm over the rising number of parents taking their children out of class to go on holiday. Ms Alexander told The : "Airline pricing is a matter for the airlines.

"And I think it's a very difficult thing for the government to interfere in. We don't have any intention of interfering in those decisions of private companies, but I can understand the frustration of parents when they are looking at the comparative costs of holidays in school holidays and school holidays.

"I would ask the travel industry to consider doing the right thing. But I think there are very limited levers for Government to intervene directly in this."

Last year a record 443,000 fines were issued to parents taking their children out of school during term time to go on holiday - a 53% increase since before Covid. This is despite school absence fines in England going up from £60 to £80 last September - rising to £160 for a second offence within three years.

READ MORE:

In March Ms Phillipson she would “look at what the options are” to tackle the rising problem. At the time Ms Phillipson, asked if she would speak to the travel industry, said: “Yes, I do believe that we need to look at what the options might be.

"They're not easy, and if they were, action might have followed more rapidly than this. But I do understand that families want the chance to have a holiday, the importance of that time together as a family, but I'm afraid that can't be during term time.“

Asked if she had spoken to the travel industry yet, she added: “It's something I intend to discuss with the Transport Secretary.” A holiday package to cost £748 in term time and £1,023 in the school break, while a package to Spain cost £925 in term time and £1,179 during the school holidays, analysis by Go Compare found last year.

And flights to Paris were £79 in September, when kids return to school, compared to £115 at the end of August.

The Transport Secretary made the remarks during a visit to East Midland Railway's Derby HQ. She met trainee drivers after the Government announced 18 year olds would be permitted to drive trains - down from 20.

Explaining the decision, Ms Alexander said: "The shortage of train drivers across the UK is a big problem. But the age of our train drivers is also an issue at the moment, because we anticipate about a third of that train drivers retiring by 2029.

"And so it's imperative that we act now. We think giving opportunity to young people when they're leaving school or college to start an apprenticeship, start a traineeship straight away so that you can get a good job and a good career on the railways is the right thing to do."

She also said that passengers would notice the benefits when the publicly-owned Great British Railways comes into force. The Government plans to nationalise rail services in a bid to tackle woeful delays across the country.

But Ms Alexander said the impact would not necessarily mean fares go down. She told reporters: "I'm clear the Great British Railways needs to be a lean, agile organisation that delivers value for money for the taxpayer.

"The increase in rail fares this year is actually the lowest in actual terms, real terms, over the last three years. I do understand that affordability is a real issue for people when it comes to public transport, but I've also got to balance that against making the railways financially sustainable."

She continued: "We need to get more people using the railways and we need to make sure that we look to reduce costs where possible and make sure that we're delivering value for money."