In the first 6 months of the year, many airports around the world were constantly congested, flights were continuously delayed and cancelled. This situation gets worse in summer.
More than 80,000 domestic flights were canceled in the country in the first six months of this year, according to data from the US Bureau of Transportation Statistics. This number is more than in 2019, the time before the pandemic. Flights canceled in the first half of this year were largely operated by the country’s busiest airline, Afar reported.
The service is overloaded, many airlines constantly receive complaints from passengers. According to statistics from the United States Department of Transportation, complaints about air services relate to refunds, cancellations, delays and problems with schedule changes.
In Europe, overcrowding at major airports occurs consecutively during the peak tourist season. A series of airports such as Manchester (England), Dublin (Ireland) or Schiphol (Netherlands)… recorded the situation of long lines of people waiting in line for procedures, suitcases piled up.
Long-term effects of the pandemic
Overcrowding incidents continued into the first half of this year, just after the airline industry was hit hard for two years by the Covid-19 hit. It’s time for the industry to step back and face many challenges, Laurie Garrow, president of AGIFORS, a nonprofit aerospace research organization, told Afar.
Passengers queued for many hours at Schiphol (Netherlands) in June. Photo: Peter Dejong.
Earlier, in March 2020, global demand for air travel seriously declined by about 90-95%. Airlines that want to keep their heads above water are forced to minimize operating costs. At that time, many airlines stopped hiring new pilots, cabin crew and ground crew until the situation returned to normal.
“The temporary suspension of recruitment and staff reduction means that when travel demand returns to normal, such as before the epidemic, airlines will find themselves in a staff shortage. Currently, many companies are struggling due to staff shortages, while passenger demand is increasing,” said Ms Garrow.
Shortages of ground staff and crew, and air traffic control are the reasons for the chaos at airports and the constant loss of baggage, the AGIFORS president said.
Flight operation despite lack of manpower
Many people wonder why airlines are in crisis of resources, flights are still operated with high frequency?
“Airline plans and schedules have collapsed due to unexpected spikes in travel demand,” said Robert Mann, an analyst and aviation consultant.
Ed Bastian, CEO of Delta Air Lines (US) admitted that airlines have had a hard time making up for 2 years of losses from the epidemic. Ambition for profit when the demand for travel is high, while the resource problems are unresolved, leading to overcrowding problems.
Baggage strewn at Heathrow Airport on June 18. Photo: Twitter.
Meanwhile, Scott Keyes, owner of Scott’s Cheap Flights (US), said that when airlines saw the need to return, they used all available resources to operate as many flights as possible.
“It is difficult to predict exactly how many flights will not be sold because the airline is uncertain about availability,” argued Scott.
In the post-pandemic recovery phase, airlines can only rely on ticket booking rates and increased travel demand to operate as many flights as possible. Making a profit first is the starting point to gradually recover from the shortage of resources, airline Scott’s Cheap Flights told Afar.
When does the overload stop?
Amid all the negative information about the airline industry in recent times, some indicators show that airline operations have shown positive signs after the first six months of the year have been rough.
Since July, the number of canceled flights in the US has fallen to just 1.6% of all scheduled flights, data from flight tracking service FlightAware shows. In June this index stood at 2.7%.
A series of flights to around the world have been canceled during the peak season. Photo: AP
Airlines are also gradually finding solutions to the staff shortage. In June, American Airlines increased pilot salaries by more than 50% for understaffed crews.
Delta Air Lines (US) is also helping student pilots find full-time jobs quickly. The airline said it will hire and train more than 2,400 pilots this year.
In fact, today’s pilots don’t have a “huge” income like they did in the pre-pandemic period. Airlines promote cheap tickets to attract passengers. To do that, they have to cut the pilot’s salary a bit. The benefits for the crew are also not as good as before, a pilot told Afar.
Despite difficulties in recruiting staff, airlines are still optimistic that the situation will be more stable in the coming months.
Ms Laurie Garrow expressed the hope that airlines will improve their performance from the end of the summer to be able to operate smoothly in the fall. The president of AGIFORS believes 2022 is a momentous lesson for airlines to better improve services in the future.
Aviation analyst Mann says the overload problems will cool down soon. “I think 2023 will be better, but that’s no consolation to those who had to deal with flight cancellations and delays last time,” he noted.
According to Mr Scott Keyes there are still difficulties and we hope travelers understand the crisis that airlines are going through.
“We face three risks that could materialize in the next 6-18 months. These are the challenges of the system’s limited capacity, rising fuel prices and the ongoing global recession,” said United Airlines’ CEO.
@ Sing News
