Rome, 13 July 2022 – It is a hot summer on skies of Europe where situations of chaos for flights, with difficulty in the majors airport stops and for many airline companies. And these are problems mainly related to the downsizing of the sector that took place in the last 2 years due to the Covid pandemic, when there have been many layoffs among ground and flight personnel.
The last to show difficulties in this summer of recovery of the flow of travelers to pre-pandemic levels – even to launch a alarm about unsustainability of the situation – they are two giants of the European aviation sector: one of the major world hubs such as London airport Heathrow and the German company Lufthansa. Meanwhile in Italia the node on the workers of some companies remains active low cost and the strikes on summer weekends.
Heathrow risks collapse
London’s Heathrowthe main British hub and one of the major airports in Europe, this summer will streamline further its flight schedule: after dozens of cancellations on Monday, today announced that will limit the number of departing passengers to 100,000 a day for two months, which is 4,000 less than his forecast. Like other British and European airports, for several months in chaos with cancellations, delays, long lines or problems with baggage delivery, Heathrow struggling to absorb the recovery in demand, mainly due to a lack of staff. “On average, only around 1,500 of these 4,000 canceled seats per day have already been sold, so we ask our partner companies to stop selling tickets planes for the summer to limit the impact for passengers, ”Heathrow CEO John Holland-Kaye said in a statement.
Lufthansa cancels another 2,000 flights
One of the largest airlines in the old continent such as Lufthansa today announced the cancellation of another 2,000 flights during the summer, until the end of August, in its two hubs in Frankfurt and Munich. This was announced by the German flight company, which has already announced in two stages the cancellation of 3,000 flights between July and August and another 770 until July 14. Mostly internal or direct flights to neighboring countries will be canceled. The chaos in flights, which is strongly affecting the holiday season in Germany, depends on the lack of staff due to the effects of the pandemic.
In Italy the strikes of controllers and low cost
In the meantime, it is not part of Italy state of agitation of air transport and remains confirmed by the unions to be 4-hour strike by Enac air traffic controllers both that of some compagnie low cost announced for Sunday July 17. In the midst of the weekend departures for the summer holidays, a new mobilization against the staff shortages and to ask for better wages and work organization conditions. The abstention from work proclaimed by the flight controllers is also joined by the new strike announced by the on-board staff Ryanair, Air Malta and society CrewLink. There is no peace, therefore, for air transport, struggling with one difficulty restarting after the most acute phase of the Covid pandemic, punctuated by continuous flight cuts due to lack of personnel on all continents. “We see ourselves forced to confirm the strike on Sunday, in the hope that it will happen as soon as possible a significant change of pace, otherwise we will follow up on further protest actions “, affirm Filt-Cgil, Fit-Cisl and Uiltrasporti regarding the protest in ENAV.