International Airlines Summer Chaos: Plans To Mitigate Downside Risks Of Strikes And Staff Shortages

The aviation industry has been in disarray since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. Now, a perfect storm of strikes and staff shortages is forcing airlines to shore up their battle plans to offset a summer of travel chaos.

Around 90,000 jobs were cut across U.S. airlines as worldwide mobility was brought to a standstill in 2020, while easyJet and Airbus were among the European companies shedding staff.

British Airways on Tuesday suspended short-haul flight sales from London’s Heathrow after the airport asked airlines to cut down passenger numbers. So, what are other airlines doing this summer?



Ticket caps
Dutch airline KLM will limit the sale of tickets flying from Amsterdam in September and October after Schiphol Airport put a cap on the number of departing passengers.

The airline “does not expect cancellations to be necessary” to meet the limits imposed by the airport, but warns that “fewer seats than usual will be available in the Dutch market.”

The airline also canceled over 1,000 flights due to a ground staff walkout in July. There is currently no capacity restriction on passenger numbers.

Low-cost carrier easyJet made changes to its schedule in June after Amsterdam’s Schiphol and London’s Gatwick Airport announced passenger capacity caps. Since then “operations have normalised”, according to easyJet, and performance is “now at 2019 levels.”

American Airlines made some “short notice” cancellations because of Heathrow’s passenger cap, according to the company, but made no mention of future disruption when asked to comment .

Swiss International in July canceled some upcoming flights scheduled between July and October. The airline said the alterations had “become necessary due to known constraints in air traffic control in Europe, constraints at ground and airport service providers worldwide and also at SWISS.”



Business as usual
Dubai’s Emirates airline hasn’t made any alterations to its schedules or passenger numbers after it refused to comply with Heathrow’s capacity restriction requests in July.

Austrian Airlines is operating its summer flight schedule “as planned.”

Meanwhile, Irish airline Ryanair says it has “no plans to cap passenger numbers” and that capacity is currently at 115% of its pre-Covid numbers.

SOURCE: CNBC
IMAGE SOURCE: Pixabay