Airlines and airports from half the planet are analyzing their operations these days to know for sure if they can respond to the compromised flight schedule. Staff shortages and strikes are causing more than 40,000 operations to drop from those planned in Europe for the summer months (25,000 between British, Easyjet and Lufthansa alone), as well as causing countless delays and problems with luggage.
This review has led Lufthansa to cancel 770 flights for this week from Frankfurt and Munich in order to “unload the system”; British Airways has increased the cut in its production until October, from 11% to 13%, and Emirates, for example, has reviewed each of the 24,000 flights and 129 airports in which its planes will operate until September 1. The latter has confirmed its schedule after surveying airport managers and ground service providers.
The rapid increase in demand has been mixed with difficulties for airlines and airports to recover the volume of some staff that were less in the pandemic. This is the case of London-Heathrow or Amsterdam-Schiphol, where airlines have been sued to reduce their activity to avoid collapse. In the Dutch market, the reduction in flight permits is around 16% and KLM plans to give up about 20 daily flights until the end of August.
British, Easyjet, KLM and Lufthansa affected by lack of capacity at airports
Measures have also been taken to reduce capacity in London-Gatwick or Frankfurt, with companies such as British, Lufthansa and Easyjet being affected.
In addition to the difficulties in hiring personnel, due to bureaucratic issues or simply because there is none, there is labor conflict in the flight templates that is reactivated with the recovery of mobility. Such is the tension that the British Government is going to grant exemptions to airlines in the slot renewal rule so that they can lower their flight forecasts without fear of losing positions at Heathrow.
Fortunately for British Airways, in a critical operating situation in June and July, there is an agreement with the unions Unite and GMB to avoid the strike of billing staff in London. And the risk of new strikes at the Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport, the next era of firefighters, also seems to be mitigated, after the understanding of the operator ADP with the trade union CGT once a conflictive month of June has passed.
In Spain, the endless queues last month at tourist airport passport control, due to a lack of police officers, increased the pressure of the companies, with Iberia at the head, and the Interior accelerated reinforcements to avoid possible collapses.
Regarding service disruptions caused by air traffic control, the entire sector looks to Marseille (France), the epicenter of serious traffic problems in recent summers. At the end of June, its workers already stopped between the 25th and the 27th and they maintain the threat of new actions in the coming weeks.
To the strikes of Easyjet and Ryanair, the one of SAS is added and tension in Brussels and Transavia
Battle in the ‘low cost’
The summer and the return of mass travelers has become a breeding ground for flight staff strikes coming from years of adjustment. Easyjet faces new stoppages of its cabin crew (TCP) in Spanish bases on the 15th, 16th, 17th, 29th, 30th and 31st of this month. In this case, it is USO who demands salary improvements that bring positions closer to the payrolls that the company pays in France or Germany, while the company is open to raises but taking the Spanish market as a reference and not the reality of other countries.
Ryanair, which is the leader in this country by volume of passengers, also has its 2,700 TCPs on the warpath in Spain, as well as in countries such as France, Portugal, Italy or Belgium. After six days of strike at its ten Spanish bases, in which there were 200 cancellations and delays in 1,250 flights of the low costthe USO and Sitcpla unions have called for 12 more days of battle: on the 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 18th, 19th, 20th, 21st, 25th, 26th, 27th and 28th of this month of July. The airline is demanded to return to the negotiation of the agreement with both unions with representation.
In Germany, the almost 800 new cancellations of flights from Lufthansa they add to a previous adjustment of 3,100 operations until the end of summer, in the midst of a chaotic situation in the main German airports. Tension is also at its highest in Belgium, where Brussels Airlines it withstood demonstrations by its personnel on June 23, 24 and 25, and is holding negotiations to avoid further coups. The Lufthansa group firm has given up 6% of its programming in July and August, about 700 flights, to ease workload.
the french Transvia, low cost of the group Air France-KLM of strong growth in Spain, has on the table a strike threat from TCP of the SNPNC union. The airline has promised to pay bonuses and has reached agreements with the main union, CGT, but social peace is not guaranteed.
And in the Nordic countries it is SAS the one that goes through a more than delicate moment. With the bankruptcy filed in the US, the Scandinavian company has unemployed a thousand pilots and about 200 maintenance technicians. This conflict is leaving more than 50% of the programming on the ground, with peaks reaching 70%, like last Friday.
Lots of lead in the wings
No air in bag. Demand returns, especially in the point-to-point segment in Europe, but the Stock Market continues to penalize airlines. IAG leaves 27.7% of its value so far this year; Lufthansa’s loss is 13.8%, and Air France-KLM leaves 42.9%. Among the largest low cost, Ryanair’s fall is 36.2% and it rises to 38% for Easyjet.
Against. An expensive fuel; the Ukraine conflict; the ups and downs of Covid-19; the difficulty to overcome the results; the slab of debt due to the crisis; operational problems, and runaway inflation, have gripped the sector.
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