2h50 of waiting.
That's how long it takes in Copenhagen to get through the security filter with a queue that starts at the metro doors and winds its way through the corridors for hundreds of meters to the terminal building.
But the Danish capital is not left out.
Edinburgh is totally submerged, Frankfurt overwhelmed.
At London-Heathrow, indescribable chaos sometimes forces airlines to let their planes take off with half their passengers – the other half being stuck in human traffic jams.
As for Amsterdam, the lack of organization has reached such a level that it has forced KLM to cancel a large number of flights.
Clearly, neither the resumption of air traffic nor the desire to travel by passengers has been taken into account by a number of airports.
at hand
” in 2023 for airlines, which expect to find 83% of their passengers from before the Covid-19 pandemic this year, they announced on Monday June 21.
Curiously and we are not going to complain about it, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, or Madrid and Barcelona in Spain are doing much better.
For two reasons.
In France, Air France has reduced its operations less than its competitors during the Covid crisis, the Paris airports have therefore maintained an important security control service.
In Spain, this is provided and paid for by the State, which has programmed the measures to ensure that passenger movements go smoothly.
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Airlines asked to reduce flights
Gatwick Airport refers to "
a serious lack of staff
" which will affect a number of airlines or ground service providers during the summer season.
PETER NICHOLLS / REUTERS
To defend themselves, all the airports in question evoke their difficulty in hiring the personnel essential to the resumption of services before the crisis.
As if they had just discovered the number of passengers holding a plane ticket!
As if the airlines had never warned them of a phenomenal recovery in traffic!
But it is too late to raise the bar.
The crisis is such that some airports such as Heathrow, Gatwick, Frankfurt or Amsterdam have asked airlines to reduce their flights this summer.
Never seen !
And all the more astonishing that the latter, very hard hit by the pandemic, are being forced to drastic reductions in their capacity at the best moment of the recovery.
After Heathrow, it's Gatwick,
Britain's second largest airport by passenger numbers, which has asked airlines to temporarily cut their flight growth rate by around 10% for July and August.
Here, it is not in addition to the security that fails, it is the staff of the baggage handlers that is lacking.
The cause of airport outsourcing
Amsterdam Airport Schiphol wants to avoid " unmanageable
" queues
by limiting flights.
PIROSCHKA VAN DE WOUW / REUTERS
The crisis has a very specific cause: airports have outsourced a number of ground services to multiple companies, and not the least: security and baggage.
However, these companies, mostly SMEs, have largely laid off during the pandemic.
They now find themselves destitute and unable to provide the qualified and often very badly paid staff that they have lost.
In the United Kingdom, the sector blames the authorities for not having accelerated the validation procedures for new flight or airport personnel.
“Instead of multiplying the service providers, the large airports, whose profitability is phenomenal, would have end-to-end integrated ground services and there would be no problem today”,
confides to
Figaro .
a member of the cabinet of the European Commissioner for Transport.
It only takes one jersey of the chain facing the default to block the whole process.
If this problem is not quickly resolved, passengers will have to suffer "
unreliable and potentially poor service, with more queues, delays and last minute cancellations"
dares Gatwick Airport , yet responsible for the cacophony.
In Amsterdam, Schiphol airport has also decided to drastically limit the number of passengers who can pass through this platform in July and August and announced on Thursday June 16 that it was going to cancel flights to avoid congestion. the airport, theater in recent weeks long queues due to a shortage of staff.
“
Failure to intervene would mean unmanageable queues and many travelers would miss their flights
,”
this would lead to dangerous situations for travelers and staff
”.
The Dutch Federation of Travel Agencies (ANVR) reacted immediately, warning that it would take legal action to force the airport to compensate for the damage it was causing by canceling these flights.
The summer will be hot.
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