LONDON : Thousands of holidaymakers have seen their Easter getaways disrupted or cancelled because airlines and airports do not have enough staff to meet the recovery in demand as pandemic restrictions are eased in Europe.High rates of COVID-19 in Britain have caused staff absences for airlines and airpor
LONDON : Thousands of holidaymakers have seen their Easter getaways disrupted or cancelled because airlines and airports do not have enough staff to meet the recovery in demand as pandemic restrictions are eased in Europe.
High rates of COVID-19 in Britain have caused staff absences for airlines and airports that were already struggling to recruit after workers deserted the industry during the pandemic. Low-cost carrier easyJet was one of the worst affected, saying it cancelled around 60 UK flights on Tuesday and expected to pull a similar number in the coming days. It cancelled more than 200 at the weekend and another 62 on Monday. Paul Charles, head of travel consultancy The PC Agency, said it could take at least two or three months to get through a nasty cocktail of staff shortages, COVID illness and a backlog in approving security passes for airport and airline workers. "It's ironic that the very desire to get people booking again, post-pandemic, is causing more difficult transport issues than those created by COVID itself," he said. EasyJet said it was rostering additional standby crew, but it had cancelled some flights on routes where it runs frequent services so passengers had options to rebook. British Airways cancelled 662 flights in the week to Sunday, aviation analytics firm Cirium said, though that includes long-haul flights suspended due to sanctions and restrictions, such as on Russia and COVID-affected parts of Asia respectively. BA declined to provide a figure for cancellations. The carrier was also hit by another IT failure on Wednesday. The number of flights cancelled due to staff sickness in recent days was in the single digits, a spokesperson said on Tuesday. But delays in government-required checks for new staff were hampering the ramp up of flights into summer, he said, and it had already trimmed its planned increase in services by about 20 flights a day until the end of May.Queues at Manchester Airport, Britain's third busiest after London's Heathrow and Gatwick, snaked out of one terminal on Tuesday, and passengers complained of hours waiting at the baggage carousel."As we continue to recover from the pandemic and passenger numbers grow, security queues may be longer than usual at times," it said on Twitter. Britain's Airport Operators Association said its members were increasing staff as quickly as possible. But a combination of a tight labour market, delays in the security checks for new and returning staff as well as COVID-related absences could put some airports under strain.Dublin Airport warned passengers that lengthy queues were likely for weeks as it rebuilds its operation and recruits and trains new security staff. Ryanair, Europe's largest low-cost carrier whose passenger numbers topped pre-pandemic levels last month, has called on the Irish government to use the army to deal with the delays, fearing the impact on the key Easter holiday period.The group, which runs facilities in nine countries and the main airport in Frankfurt, aims to hire 1,000 worker this year and recruited about 300 in January-March, a spokesperson said.
Please follow us on Google to support usSingapore Latest News, Singapore Headlines
Similar News: You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Commentary: Why places with tighter restrictions have been hit worse by BA.2 Omicron sub-variantImmunity, generated by infection or vaccination, is the most influential disease control factor. This helps explain why some countries are now handling outbreaks better than others, says a medical professor.
Read more »
Surging Covid-19 cases force easyJet to cancel Britain flights over staff shortages
Read more »
Hit by sanctions over Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Lada factory town braces for tough timesTOLYATTI, Russia: For generations the Russian city of Tolyatti has been synonymous with leading car manufacturer Avtovaz, maker of one of the country\u0027s best-known brands, the Lada automobile. But with the West piling sanctions on Russia over its
Read more »
London Spirit sign West Indian Pollard in Hundred draftLondon Spirit have signed West Indies batsman Kieron Pollard as their number one men's pick in The Hundred draft, the team said on Tuesday, while all-rounder Andre Russell joined Manchester Originals and Dwayne Bravo went to Northern Superchargers.Pollard, who has played over 100 Twenty20 internationals,
Read more »
Emerging markets suffer $9.8bln outflow in March with big hit to ChinaEmerging markets suffered their first portfolio outflows in a year in March, driven by investors ditching Chinese assets and growing anxiety over recent geopolitical events, a report by the Institute of International Finance (IIF) showed on Tuesday.Foreign net portfolio outflows for emerging markets came
Read more »