How was this chaos allowed to happen?
HAVING recently travelled to Canada and the USA and passed through six airports, I can speak at first-hand about some of the problems experienced by travellers.
I too arrived several hours early to stand in a queue for over two hours without moving while one member of staff tried to book in 300 customers. I was told my papers were not in order (when they were) I had flights delayed, missed connections, plus a cancellation, more delays and too much sitting round waiting.
I also had the added joy of my luggage being sent to the wrong airport, disappearing for four days, so had to go out to buy new essentials and pay to source a prescription for my regular medication. I am probably only one of thousands affected in this way, and the worry is that the cost of all this disruption will almost certainly be passed on to future travellers.
We are continually told that the main problem is shortage of staff at all grades, both ground staff at the airports and the aircraft crew. One official told me lots of people wanted to travel after the pandemic, but the airlines were not well prepared.
It raises the question how did this happen? As travel companies reported the escalation in holiday bookings following announcements about the relaxation of Covid19 restrictions; surely, they must have been able to predict demand and begin a recruitment plan to ensure their customers could travel efficiently? They also must have had good working knowledge of the staff numbers needed to cope with the impending demand.
Despite the daily cancellations of flights plus the airport chaos, airlines continue to send out information about new destinations and special offers. Travel agencies are also pushing out adverts about new holiday resorts and offers to tempt us.