Britain: Expensive flights, hassle at airports

Despite the “end” of the pandemic, there is “chaos” at airports and airlines with staff shortages, delays and flight cancellations.

We are a breath away from this summer, which is the first without the restrictions and bureaucracy of the pandemic. For this and despite the rising cost of living, the British are waiting as long as anything else to leave the country and be transported to the warm beaches of the Mediterranean. But while this year’s picture is optimistic, the forecasts do not bode well for a carefree trip.

Huge staff shortages, long queues at Britain’s largest airports and cancellations of dozens of flights until the last minute are just some of the problems in the industry.

Staff required!

The largest British airlines, such as British Airways and Easyjet, have even appealed to the government to speed up the recruitment process as it is its responsibility to carry out the necessary checks of industry employees for security reasons.

It is pointed out that the British government, after the pressure it received, allowed the airlines to start the staff training program before the completion of the process of checking the background of the candidate employee, starting from May 20.

In this regard, a few hours ago, Easyjet announced the granting of a bonus of 1,000 pounds to existing staff and those who will be hired, as a last resort to attract employees. One month ago, British Airways was the first company to apply the “extraordinary bonus” as it experiences even more shortages.

Ticket prices are rising and low cost companies

And the truth is that flight cancellations are not the only problem for this summer. Airline ticket prices are rising even for so-called low cost airlines, with Ryanair chairman Michael O’Leary telling the BBC today that “prices will rise by up to 9% as demand for flights to European beaches has risen”. at record levels “.

Ryanair has already carried 97.1 million passengers and hopes that number will reach 165 million, which exceeds the level of passengers before the pandemic that reached a record 149 million passengers.

On the same wavelength is the CEO of the British TUI, Andrew Flindham, who confirmed that “the demand remains high for Turkey, Greece and Egypt for this and I urge the British to book their tickets as soon as possible.”

However, if one takes a quick look at the canceled flights to Heathrow, the largest airport in the United Kingdom and Europe, most cancellations are British Airways, including tonight’s flight from Athens to Heathrow.

It remains to be seen how this summer will turn out to be “normal” as so far some of the main suggestions of the airlines for the delays are for the passengers to either go to the airports hours earlier or not to have luggage.

Zoe Katzagiannaki, London

Source: Deutsche Welle