Oh I’m sorry Bruce, I thought I was on a discussion forum where we can run through our ideas and opinions…I’ll leave you too it then.
1 Like
It is but it is clear that what you said about it being due to vaccine mandates doesn’t apply so you need to come up with something else.
I thought the reason for so many cancelled flights was that the whole travel system could not cope with the surge in demand, after a period when very few people were travelling.
They had laid off so many staff during the period when people could not travel and it was difficult to predict future demand, plus it was difficult to quickly recruit sufficient staff to cope with the demand.
The Tui UK managing director, Andrew Flintham, wrote to customers to explain that the company relies on a complex ecosystem of services, including its own pilots and cabin crew, as well as operational partners that cover check-in, baggage and catering, and air traffic control and airport security.
“Hundreds of flights were cancelled by airlines over the half-term break which coincided with the four-day jubilee bank holiday weekend, as they struggled to cope with a surge in demand. Carriers and airports laid off tens of thousands of people during the pandemic and have been slow to recruit more staff, with some gone to other industries and others lost because of Brexit.”
When I took a flight from Manchester at the end of May, there was loads of flights cancelled - mostly chartered flights from companies like TUI.
There was a scheduled flight about 9pm to a non-European Country, then my flight to Athens around midnight and the next flight was not until 6am the next morning to Paris.
Despite the check in being really quiet and the security checking area being totally deserted, there was still a delay in our flight setting off and Manchester Airport ground staff managed to lose a few dozen bags from our flight between the check-in desk and the aeroplane.
When we arrived at our destination, many passengers experienced the same as we did. One of the bags we had checked arrived on the same aeroplane as we did but the other one was missing.
Although there was two flights each day from Manchester, my missing bag took 3 days to arrive in Athens.
I believe this was down to lack of ground staff at the airport - and when I flew back to Manchester Airport yesterday, in the early hours of the morning, there wasn’t many flights arriving at that time of night, so very few passengers waiting at the baggage carousels - but I saw hundreds of unclaimed bags stacked in groups around the edges of the baggage claim area. I have never seen anything like it in a baggage claim area before.
Talking to the taxi driver on the journey home, he was telling us that the taxi industry was having similar problems - all the drivers who had lost employment during Covid when folk weren’t travelling around had moved on to other jobs and his firm were having difficulty recruiting new drivers for the night time taxi airport runs now that the travel industry had picked up again.
2 Likes
Deleted!!
My fault !!
the real question is ? - is this just a simple discussion thread or a FACT exchange thread - there is a diffference and sometimes get mixed up!
I cant understand why the airlines dont employ agency staff, same as
the channel ferries did recently ??
But hearing all the complaints about luggage being misplaced at airports
maybe thats exactly what they have done !!