Kilometres of queues for check-in and nomadic crowds in the airports. And the flights are and will be delayed or cancelled. Such conditions must be taken into account by anyone who decides to travel by air this summer, notes Rzeczpospolita today.
Delayed flights in the airports
Delayed flights, not even by a few hours, but even by a few days, is a real plague – the newspaper points out.
“And we know who is at fault. Firstly, consumers who decided to go on holiday en masse after two years of the pandemic. Secondly, the aviation industry, because it had underestimated the increase in demand and was cutting employment this spring instead of looking for employees” – indicates the daily. He adds that British and German trade unions have another culprit: low-cost carriers who have encouraged flying so competitively that airports are unable to meet the challenge of handling passengers in decent conditions.
Increase of 179% compared to June 2021
As the newspaper notes, Wizz Air has just released shipping results for June 2022. “4.34 million passengers used Wizz Air in June, an increase of 179% compared to June 2021.” – underlines “Rzeczpospolita”. Over the past 12 months, he adds, Hungarian low-cost Air has significantly expanded its network of connections, adding 200 new routes to 126 ports in Europe and beyond.
The daily notes that Wizz Air has been intensively looking for new employees recently. “The problems with the shortage of air traffic controllers, crews, especially pilots, which cause delays and cancellations, are becoming more and more acute this summer,” he says. He recalled that the strike at SAS ended, 600 flights were cancelled on Monday due to the air controllers’ strike. There is a protest at Ryanair.
The European Cockpit Association (ECA), as Rzeczpospolita points out, warns that there is no easy and quick solution to deal with the current confusion related to travelling around Europe. “Chaos is here and it will not go away any time soon.
We will not deal with it this year,” said Captain Tanja Harter, ECA’s chief technical officer, quoted in the daily. According to her, the key problem of the crews is fatigue, their schedules are planned with the maximum use of the applicable limits, without additional breaks.
Source: BusinessInsider