The “post-war” consequences will continue to fever the airline and ruin the lives of tourists until early 2024 – and many airlines and tour operators may fall victim to this “disease”, finally going bankrupt.
It is chaos at airports across Europe caused by a shortage of staff. With its first appearance in the UK, the chaos has spread across Europe, with the staffing problem already gaining a new “strain” in the form of mass discontent and strikes by the remaining staff, who are forced to work wildly. So the forecasts of the situation inside the airline sound extremely pessimistic, and this applies not only to tourists from Europe but also to travelers from other countries who want to visit the Old World: because of these problems will have to suffer.
According to John Holland Kay, CEO of London Heathrow Airport, Britain’s largest air port airport, the chaos at airports with large-scale cancellations and delays could continue for another 18 months, almost until the beginning of 2024, including the upcoming summer tourist season. In the summer season of this year, the expert has already put a cross. “Long queues and passenger dissatisfaction in recent weeks at airports in Germany, England, the Netherlands, Ireland, and Spain may continue beyond 2023. One of the main reasons for this problem is the lack of staffing, “the official said.
Experts note that airlines and tour operators will have to pay financially for canceled flights and programs. We will remind, a set of flights was removed, for example, by the British TUI which caused mass indignation of tourists and legislators. As a result, airlines and tour operators will have to pay compensation to tourists, and the British government only wants to increase the size of such penalties.
At the same time, the remaining staff in the aviation industry “works for wear and tear”, and it is not surprising that the problem of flight delays was almost immediately exacerbated by strikes. The foreign media list the following examples:
- Dozens of flights from the UK have been canceled due to strikes by traffic control specialists at Italian airports.
- In France, a quarter of morning flights were canceled due to a strike by staff at Paris’s Charles de Gaulle Airport. This is a quarter of all flights between 07:00 and 14:00. Strike workers are demanding a 300-euro pay rise in response to inflation.
- The Belgian airline Brussels Airlines has decided to reduce the number of flights in the summer after the threat of a strike from the unions, and workers threatened to strike during the summer season. The reason is problems with irregular work schedules, workload, and wages. Following this warning, Brussels Airlines announced that it had canceled 148 flights across Europe to ease the workload of workers during the summer. Brussels Airlines pilots also warned that they could go on strike for 3 days in late June. They reminded that their wages were reduced during the Covid-19 pandemic, they want their working conditions and wages to be improved.
- In the Netherlands, too, things are not so smooth: Royal Dutch Airlines KLM’s ground handling staff have announced that they have canceled almost 50 daily flights.
We will remind also you about the forecasts of the pilot of the British airline British Airways. He also does not expect that the situation in the aviation industry will stabilize this season. Read the details by link.