Are labor shortages and disruptions temporary or an iceberg coming?

How do airline bosses and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) rate the current delays and cancelations in air travel, caused by staff shortages? AirInsight asked some of them from across the globe for their views at this week’s Annual General Meeting

in Doha (Qatar). We got some interesting observations. Are labor shortages and disruptions temporary or an iceberg coming?

London Heathrow or Gatwick, Amsterdam Schiphol, Madrid Barajas, Belfast, Frankfurt, Hamburg… All well-known European airports recently hit the headlines for the wrong reasons. Long queues of passengers, frequently lining up for check-in and/or security checks for over four hours, have apparently made flying a grueling experience. And when they have got through, it’s not uncommon to be confronted with a last-minute cancelation, either imposed by the airport or caused by the airline unable to operate the flight.

The common denominator in this post-Covid chaos is staff shortages. At airports, where baggage handlers, security personnel, or airline ground staff with low-paid jobs have not returned to aviation after having faced furloughs and redundancies when wave after wave of Covid 19 kicked in. It’s been the same in aircraft cabins and cockpits. And even in control towers and at air traffic management centers, where highly-qualified and highly-paid staff works, staffing issues are frequent. Either caused by Covid-related absences or simply because people aren’t available.