Luggage piled up as far as the eye could see. The mess is visible at airports in Montreal, Toronto and Athens. Difficult for travelers to find their suitcase in the middle of the chaos.. You can also see these long queues at Amsterdam airport. How did we get here ?
“During the pandemic, we laid off a whole series of staff. The problem is that air transport is a chain of services. If the firefighters go on strike, the airport is at a standstill, if they are the customs officers, ditto”, explains Patrick Anspach, a journalist specializing in aeronautics.
Even if we find staff, we have to train them
Staff now want more comfortable working hours and a salary more suited to the arduous nature of their work. As a result, the sector is having a hard time recruiting. “We are looking everywhere. Obviously, the unions say ‘Find staff’ but we don’t have any. We can no longer find those who left during the pandemic. And even if we find staff, we have to train them. And that is not done in a month”, says Patrick Anspach.
To cope with this shortage, the time has come for flight cancellations. Amsterdam-Schiphol wants to reduce its capacity by 30% over the next three months. Lufthansa cancels 3.000 flights in July/August, Brussels Airlines 700 over the same period. Air Canada and the Scandinavian company SAS must also revise their flights downwards. The sector will have to find strategies to make its jobs attractive.