Summer travel faces chaos in Europe

Strikes and staff shortages are forcing Europe’s airlines to cancel thousands of flights and causing hours of queues at major airports, dashing hopes for the first scorching summer after widespread Covid-related lockdowns.

Here is a summary of the main facts:

LABOR UNRESISTANCE

After job cuts and pay cuts as Covid-19 halted travel, employees across the industry, from pilots to baggage handlers, are calling for big pay raises and better working conditions.

Norwegian Air agreed in June to a 3.7% increase for pilots, among other benefits, in a sign of what other airlines will have to offer to avoid labor disputes.

Scandinavian carrier SAS and Irish carrier Ryanair agreed in July with some unions representing their pilots, and British Airways and KLM signed salary agreements with ground workers as strikes affected hundreds of thousands of travelers in the main holiday period.

portuguese airports

Portugal’s civil aviation workers threatened on August 1 to go on strike on the 19th and 21st, a usually busy summer weekend for travel. Two unions representing workers have accused the airport operator ANA, which manages ten airports in Portugal, including Lisbon, Porto and Faro, and the French group Vinci, which controls ANA, of making multi-million net profits but not paying living wages to their employees. employees.

lufthansa

Pilots at Germany’s largest carrier voted July 31 in favor of industrial action. A board member of the VC pilots union said the vote did not necessarily mean a strike would take place and that they were ready to negotiate. Lufthansa said on Aug. 1 that negotiations to resolve the pay dispute were ongoing.

The VC is demanding a 5.5% salary increase this year for its drivers and automatic inflation compensation thereafter.

Lufthansa has already been rocked by a ground staff strike on July 27 that forced it to cancel more than 1,000 flights. The Verdi union is demanding a 9.5% pay rise for about 20,000 workers, and has warned that more industrial action may be in the pipeline.

Ryanair

Ryanair’s unionized Spanish cabin crew members plan to go on strike four days a week through January, demanding better pay and working conditions, the USO union said July 27. The strike, also supported by Sitclpa, will take place from Monday to Thursday every week from August 8 to January 7.

Ryanair employees also caused disruption at many airports in the month of July when they left work for several days, mostly on weekends.

easyjet

Easyjet pilots based in Spain said on July 29 that they will go on strike for nine days in August. The pilots will stop at the bases of Barcelona, ​​Malaga and Palma de Mallorca.

Meanwhile, the Spain-based cabin crew has suspended their planned strike for July 29 and 31 after reaching an agreement with the company. Workers went on strike earlier in July from the 1st to the 3rd and again from the 15th to the 17th, which caused some cancellations and flight delays for the low-cost airline.

REDUCED SUMMER HOURS

Airlines including Lufthansa, British Airways, easyJet, KLM and Wizz Air have cut thousands of flights from their daylight saving schedules to deal with disruptions, while major airports including London’s Heathrow and Amsterdam’s Schiphol have limited passenger traffic.

British Airways stopped selling tickets on short-haul flights departing Heathrow until mid-August, following the airport’s decision to limit capacity. The airline’s website did not show tickets for flights before August 16 to popular European destinations including Paris, Milan and Amsterdam.

On August 2, Schiphol extended the passenger limit it had previously set to address the long wait times and other logistical issues in September and October.

WAVE OF CONTRACTING AND INCENTIVES

Airports and airlines are struggling to hire more workers, from pilots to security, border control and baggage handlers, after many resigned during the Covid-19 crisis.

Industry executives say it’s difficult to recruit for an often grueling and relatively low-paying job at airports often located outside cities. Training new hires and getting security clearance to work at airports also takes months.

Schiphol agreed to pay 15,000 janitors, porters and security guards an extra 5.25 euros an hour during the summer.

One of the busiest airports in Europe needs to hire 500 security guards. It currently has 58,000 workers at and around the airport, 10,000 fewer than before the pandemic.

Paris’ Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports need to fill 4,000 jobs primarily in security, maintenance and ticket sales, according to airport operator Groupe ADP and CDG Alliance.

More than 20,000 people were laid off at Charles de Gaulle during the pandemic, according to the CGT union.

Airport security company ICTS, which operates in Charles de Gaulle, is offering a one-time bonus of €180 for employees who delay their vacation until September 15 and €150 for those who sign up new recruits, according to a CGT union representative. .

Frankfurt Airport, Germany’s busiest hub, has rehired nearly 1,000 ground service workers after cutting around 4,000 during the pandemic, but will continue to experience disruptions due to staff shortages over the next two to three months, according to its operator. to Fraport.

Germany plans to speed up work permits and visas for several thousand foreign airport workers, mostly from Turkey, to help ease travel chaos.
According to the airport association ADV, about one in five jobs in security, check-in and aircraft maneuvering are vacant at German airports.

Translated by Luiz Robert M. Gonçalves