Lack of personnel in bag handling, a number of canceled flights and “infinitely” long queues for security checks. This is what the situation has been like at London Heathrow Airport in recent weeks, several British media reports.
Only 49 percent of all flights to and from the airport have been on time since early July.
For those traveling via Brussels-Zaventem airport, the situation is even worse: there, 72 percent of flights were delayed in July. Other airports with a large number of delays are Frankfurt International Airport, Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris and Lisbon Airport – all with more than 60 percent delayed flights so far this month, according to Bloomberg.
Strikes and staff shortages
The airline British Airways ground staff voted in favor of a strike in June, but after the airline agreed to raise employees’ salaries, the strike never ended, writes The Sunday Times.
Staff at Charles de Gaulle in Paris went on strike on 9 June. Almost a month later, the strike was called off after a solution was reached between the CGT union and the airport’s owners.
Employees of the low-cost airlines Easyjet and Ryanair in Spain have been on strike since June, demanding higher wages and better working conditions. Ryanair pilots in France and Belgium have announced that they will go on strike between July 23 and 24, reports Reuters.
The reason, according to the trade union CNE, is that the airline does not respect the legislation.
“Since the recent strikes, Ryanair’s management attitude has become even more contemptuous and arrogant,” Didier Lebbe, CNE’s permanent secretary, told The Brussels Times.
In June, Ryanair announced that it had negotiated employment agreements covering 90 percent of staff in Europe and that it did not expect major disruptions this summer, reports Reuters.
Airlines such as Turkish Airlines, Lufthansa and Wizz Air have also canceled flights during the summer, due to strikes and staff shortages.