Given the pent-up demand, shouldn’t airlines and airports have seen the surge coming? “Yes and no,” says Alton Aviation’s Gupta. “We have faced 40 years of growth in just four months and that has put the entire aviation industry under pressure.” “Passenger numbers are higher now than at any time since the start of the pandemic-and growing,” says Sarah Fairley, senior press officer at Heathrow Airport, in a written statement. Individual airports have experienced similar patterns: in May, 5.9 million more passengers flew through Paris airports, 4.1 million more through Amsterdam, and 3.4 million more through Frankfurt than in the same period the previous year.
Although total passenger numbers are still well below their 2019 levels globally, in March, the number of people flying European airlines skyrocketed 425% over the previous year and 228% on North American ones. It all stems from a combination of staff shortages and rebounding travel. EasyJet has canceled 40 flights a day in June, or roughly 1,700 for the month British Airways has taken 8,000 off its March-October schedule and a random perusal of flight tracker shows United, KLM, American, Delta, and Lufthansa all currently canceling dozens each day. On several occasions in the last two months, Heathrow and Gatwick in London have both asked airlines to cap their daily number of flights. That same month, Iberia airlines reported that since March, 15,000 passengers had missed their connections through Madrid’s Barajas airport. A technical error at Heathrow on the weekend of June 18-19 resulted in a “baggage mountain” of unclaimed luggage that, 10 days later, has reportedly started to stink. In June, it was taking four hours to get through security at Dusseldorf airport, while just last week at Amsterdam’s Schiphol, the line for security stretched out the terminal, through a tent set up by the side of the road, and back into the building. Read More: Flight Canceled or Delayed? Here’s What to Do “Airlines obviously want to take advantage of the fact that demand is coming back, but I don’t see that all these connected entities will be able to hire up by then.” “Summer will still be rough,” says Umang Gupta, managing director of Alton Aviation Consultancy. and widespread labor strikes underway, the situation doesn’t look like it will get fixed anytime soon. With the Fourth of July holiday weekend bearing down in the U.S.
#Time up in the air drivers#
And as bad as it is for the passengers, airline and airport employees are suffering more: pilots, flight attendants, security personnel, baggage handlers, and even airport bus drivers report being overworked and stressed out like never before. Much of this is pandemic-induced pain after the airline industry pretty much ground to a halt over the last two years, and is now struggling to catch up with surging demand. Soul-killingly long lines at check-in and security hundreds of flights canceled every week because airlines can’t staff them luggage that doesn’t show up for days. Across Europe and the United States, what was supposed to be the summer of travel’s joyful return has instead become a season of chaos.
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