Easter holiday travel: No repeat of airport chaos, industry says

Thursday, March 30, 2023

Airports and airlines have told a news agency that they are confident they have enough staff to avoid a repeat of last year’s disruption in the Easter holidays.

Some struggled with staff shortages last year as passengers returned, leading to delays and cancellations.

Wages have risen, as businesses try to attract and keep new recruits.

Airline bosses have warned strikes in France are likely to cause issues, but still expect passenger numbers to return to pre-Covid levels of 2019.

EasyJet’s chief operating officer, David Morgan, said when they close an airport because of strikes you are going to see disruption.

But the vast majority of flights, even during a disrupted period, will run smoothly.

EasyJet started recruitment six months early, while Manchester Airport said it already had enough security staff for the summer peak.

Passenger numbers swiftly returned after COVID-19 restrictions were lifted in March 2022.

But many holidaymakers encountered huge disruption, as some aviation businesses could not scale up or reverse pandemic job cuts quickly enough to cope.

For people to get away on flights smoothly, various businesses need to work together with the right resources in place.

Last spring, Manchester Airport faced particular criticism for long queues caused by shortages of security staff.

By the summer, its Managing Director Chris Woodroofe could only promise a “reasonable” experience.

This time he promises a “great” experience. He reassured passengers that they won’t see the [security] queues they saw in summer 2022.

They are aiming to deliver at least 95% of our passengers in fifteen minutes.

He said the airport had 350 more security officers than the same time last year, and there would be enough staff in place this April to cope with the busiest day in August.

A new 100 person-strong ‘resilience team’ has been set up, trained to help in any area where pressure builds up.

Last year, shortages of ground handlers also proved a particular challenge. These teams do tasks like unloading baggage and helping to prepare the plane for departure.

It is the responsibility of airlines, many of whom contract out the services to specialist providers.

Swissport is the world’s biggest, operating at 292 airports including Manchester.

Airlines too are optimistic. EasyJet was just one carrier to make large numbers of cancellations last year.

The carrier and British Airways offered bonuses as airlines battled to recruit and retain staff.

EasyJet’s David Morgan said the airline started hiring for this summer as early as July last year.

He added that they are fully staffed for this summer. They have a good resilient number of crew in the system even to cope with the bumps if stuff that’s thrown at them.

Mr Morgan acknowledged wages have gone up across the industry, and these costs and higher fuel prices are being reflected in fares.

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