Long airport lineups and an accumulation of lost luggage are both present. Travelers in Europe can expect a tumultuous summer.
Liz Morgan found the security queue snaking outside the terminal, into a large tent along a road, and then doubling back inside the main building when she arrived at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport four and a half hours prior to her departure to Athens.
There are children and newborns among the elderly in the lines. No water, nothing at all. Morgan an Australian who tried to save time Monday by checking in online and only bringing a carry-on bag complained that there was no signage, no one to assist, and no restrooms.
Because if you left the line, you would lose your place, she claimed, thus people “couldn’t have access to the restroom.”
Travel demand has surged after two years of pandemic restrictions, but airlines and airports that cut staff during the height of the COVID-19 crisis are failing to keep up. As Europe’s bustling summer travel season gets off, travelers are experiencing chaotic airport scenes, including protracted delays, canceled flights, and anxiety over misplaced luggage.
The busiest airport in the Netherlands, Schiphol, is reducing flight schedules due to an excess of airline seats that exceeds the daily capacity of security personnel. KLM, a Dutch airline, issued an apology for leaving travelers stranded there this month. Ben Smith, CEO of airline partnership Air France-KLM, said on Thursday that it might take months before Schiphol has enough workers to relieve the strain.
Gatwick and Heathrow airports in London are requesting a flight number cap from the airlines. To minimize last-minute cancellations and in reaction to capacity restrictions at Gatwick and Schiphol, low-cost airline EasyJet is canceling hundreds of summer flights. In a letter to Ireland’s transport minister; North American airlines urged him to take swift action to address “severe delays” at Dublin Airport.
Schiphol accounted for over 9 percent of the nearly 2,000 flights from major continental European airports that were canceled in a single week this month, according to statistics from aviation consultancy Cirium. Cirium said that 376 additional flights were canceled from U.K. airports, with Heathrow accounting for 28% of the cancellations.
Similar events occurred in the United States, when airlines canceled thousands of flights over two days due to poor weather last week, just as summer tourists grow
According to Julia Lo Bue-Said, CEO of the Advantage Travel Group which represents around 350 travel agents in the United Kingdom, “people are traveling in the vast majority of cases.” She added that due to a lack of people, processing security checks for newly hired employees is taking much longer.
It also means that “when things go wrong, they’re going terribly wrong,” she added, because “they’re all generating bottlenecks in the system.”
The cancellation of COVID-19 screenings for travelers entering the United States under the Biden administration has increased the demand for transatlantic travel. After the rule was abandoned this month, Bue-Said claimed that the agents for her organization saw an increase in U.S. bookings.
The strengthening of the dollar against the euro and pound is also a consideration for Americans traveling to Europe because it lowers the cost of lodging and dining.
Last week, a Heathrow terminal’s floor was covered in a sea of unclaimed luggage. On Monday, the airport ordered airlines to cancel 10% of flights at two terminals due to technical issues with the baggage system, which would affect around 5,000 passengers.
According to the airport, “a handful of travelers” may have left without their luggage.
Marlena Spieler, a cookbook author, spent three hours going through passport control this month on her way back to London from Stockholm.
The baggage room was “a madhouse, with heaps of suitcases everywhere,” according to Spieler, 73, who spent at least another hour and a half looking for her belongings there.
Before realizing her bag was on a carousel, she was about to give up. She has another trip to Greece scheduled in a few weeks, but she is anxious about heading to the airport once more.
“I’ll be honest: I’m worried about my safety. Is this something I can handle? The Player stated via email.
This summer, in Sweden, the security checkpoint lineups at Stockholm’s Arlanda Airport were so lengthy that many travelers were arriving more than five hours before scheduled departure. Since so many people are arriving early, officials are denying access to travelers who arrive more than three hours before their flights to ease congestion.
Despite modest improvements, the line to one of the checkpoints on Monday was more than 100 meters (328 feet) long.
While waiting in line to check their luggage four young German women, requested fellow travelers if they might go ahead of them since they were worried about missing their trip to Hamburg. They purchased fast-track passes after they arrived to skip the long security line.
Before hurrying to the fast-track lane, Lina Wiele, 19, said that she hadn’t experienced exactly the same amount of pandemonium in other airports, “not like that, I guess.”
During the epidemic, thousands of pilots, cabin crew, baggage handlers, and other aviation industry professionals lost their jobs, and now there aren’t enough to handle the uptick in travel.
Willie Walsh, president of the International Air Transport Association, stated that “certain airlines are struggling because I think they were expected to recoup personnel levels quicker than they’ve been able to achieve.”
Walsh stated this week in Qatar at the annual conference of the airline trade organization that the post-pandemic staff shortfall is not specific to the airline business.
Airlines have not been able to provide their staff the same flexibility as other organizations, which presents a challenge for us, he said. Many of the positions cannot be performed remotely. “We need workers to help load bags and assist passengers, as well as pilots and cabin crew, in order to run the aircraft.”
The majority of the personnel at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport is represented by the FNV union, which claims that laid-off aviation workers “have found other positions with greater earnings, with more stable contracts.” Joost van Doesburg. Everyone wants to travel once again, but no one wants to work in airports.
The CEO of Europe’s largest airline and low-cost carrier, Ryanair, issued a warning that flight cancellations and delays will persist “all through the summer.”
” According to Michael O’Leary, passengers may anticipate a “less-than-satisfactory encounter.”
Despite not yet experiencing significant issues, certain airports throughout Europe are prepared. According to spokesperson Klara Diviskova, the Vaclav Havel international airport in Prague anticipates a rise in passenger traffic starting the following week and continuing through July, “when we can encounter a shortfall of personnel, notably during the security checks.”
Despite a recruitment push, “dozens of personnel” are still needed at the airport, she claimed.
Problems are also being caused by labor unrest.
A three-day strike in Belgium, beginning on Thursday, will result in the cancellation of roughly 315 flights, affecting about 40,000 customers, according to Brussels Airlines.
This month, there were two days of strikes at the Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, one by security officers and the other by airport workers who claim their pay is not keeping up with inflation. The second day saw a quarter of flights canceled.
Although Smith, the airline’s CEO, said it’s not anticipated to affect operations, some Air France pilots are planning a walkout on Saturday, alleging that crew tiredness is endangering flight security. On July 1, airport employees promise a further strike over pay.
According to Jan Bezdek, spokesman for Czech travel operator CK Fischer, which has already sold more vacation packages this year than before the pandemic, the airport issues are not going to deter people from traveling by air.
What is evident, according to Bezdek, is that individuals cannot endure having to wait to travel following the outbreak. Any issues at airports are unlikely to alter that.
