Travel demand collides with cutbacks at Europe’s airports
LONDON — It’s going to be a chaotic summer for travelers in Europe.
Liz Morgan arrived at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport 4 ½ hours before her flight to Athens, finding the line for security snaking out of the terminal and into a big tent along a road before doubling back inside the main building.
People “couldn’t get to the toilet because if you go out of the queue, you lost your spot,” said Morgan, who is from Australia and had tried to save time Monday by checking in online and taking only a carry-on bag.
After two years of pandemic restrictions, travel demand has roared back, but airlines and airports that slashed jobs during the COVID-19 crisis are struggling. With the busy summer tourism season underway in Europe, passengers are encountering chaotic scenes at airports, including lengthy delays and canceled flights.
Schiphol, the Netherlands’ busiest airport, is trimming flights, saying there are thousands of airline seats per day above the capacity that security staff can handle. Dutch carrier KLM apologized for stranding passengers there this month.
London’s Gatwick and Heathrow airports are asking airlines to cap their flight numbers. Discount carrier easyJet is scrapping thousands of summer flights to avoid last-minute cancellations and in response to caps at Gatwick and Schiphol. North American airlines wrote to Ireland’s transport chief demanding urgent action to tackle “significant delays” at Dublin’s airport.
It’s a similar story in the United States as airlines canceled thousands of flights last week.
“In the vast majority of cases, people are traveling,” said Julia Lo Bue-Said, CEO of the Advantage Travel Group, which represents about 350 U.K. travel agents. But airports have staff shortages, and it’s taking a lot longer to process security clearances for newly hired workers, she said.
The Biden administration scrapping COVID-19 tests for people entering the U.S. is giving an extra boost to pent-up demand for transatlantic travel. Bue-Said said her group’s agents reported a jump in U.S. bookings after the rule was dropped this month.
For American travelers to Europe, the dollar strengthening against the euro and the pound is also a factor, by making hotels and restaurants more affordable.
Thousands of pilots, cabin crew, baggage handlers and other aviation industry workers were laid off during the pandemic, and now there’s not enough to cope with the travel rebound.
“Some airlines are struggling because I think they were hoping to recover staffing levels quicker than they’ve able to do,” said Willie Walsh, head of the International Air Transport Association.
The post-pandemic staff shortage is not unique to the airline industry, Walsh said
at the airline trade group’s annual meeting this week in Qatar.
“What makes it difficult for us is that many of the jobs cannot be operated remotely, so airlines have not been able to offer the same flexibility for their workforce as other companies,” he said.
Laid-off aviation workers “have found new jobs with higher wages, with more stable contracts,” said Joost van Doesburg of the FNV union, which represents most staff at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport. “And now everybody wants to travel again,” but workers don’t want airport jobs.
The CEO of budget airline Ryanair, Europe’s biggest carrier, warned that flight delays and cancellations would continue “right throughout the summer.” Passengers should expect a “less-than-satisfactory experience,” Michael O’Leary told Sky News.
Some European airports haven’t seen big problems yet but are bracing. Prague’s Vaclav Havel international airport expects passenger numbers to swell into July, “when we might experience a lack of staffers, especially at the security checks,” spokeswoman Klara Diviskova said.
The airport is short “dozens of staffers,” she said.