Airports and hospitality centers across Europe are struggling to meet rising travel demand after the pandemic’s restrictions eased.
2022 marks the first summer in which many Europeans can travel after two years of Covid-19 restrictions, causing an increase in tourists across the continent.
But thousands of hospitality workers placed on leave plans also never returned to work after the pandemic’s restrictions were lifted.
Many airports that have downsized over the past two years are also unable to attract new workers in time to cope with the summer rush.
Photographs from mid-May to June showed summerers queuing around the block at airports in Madrid, Amsterdam, Sweden and Dublin.
Hopeful holiday attendees are photographed on Tuesday at Dublin Airport, where bosses were asked to find solutions to solve the long delays passengers face.
Taoiseach Michael Martin said the situation was “unacceptable and not good enough”. Concern has been growing about what could happen at the airport before the holiday weekend
Travelers to Schiphol Airport show up at the end of a long weekend, Schiphol, The Netherlands, May 29, 2022
Travelers are waiting in long queues to fly from Schiphol. The airport now unequivocally warns that there could be hours of queuing in the coming weeks
More than 1,000 passengers lost their flights at Dublin Airport on Sunday after a shortage of staff caused queuing hours.
Dublin Airport reduced staffing during the Covid-19 pandemic, its chief executive said on Wednesday.
Dublin Airport Authority Director General Dalton Philips said staff absences and accidental listing of intern security staff made worsening queue problems worse.
“We feel that entering 2022 with 70% of our staff (pre-Covid) would be fine and we were wrong …” Philips told a parliamentary committee. “We were very wrong in terms of recovery levels.”
No industry analyst believed traffic would return to pre-pandemic levels by 2024 or 2025, he said, but in Dublin it has returned to 90%, with some now predicting that travel could exceed pre-pandemic levels. pandemic.
The DAA fired 25% of its staff at the height of the pandemic.
Ireland’s Covid-19 temporary wage subsidy scheme provided a weekly subsidy of £ 350 per worker to companies that experienced a 25% drop in turnover.
Chaos continues @DublinAirport 🛫This is the @AerLingus queue for luggage delivery at Terminal 2 at 3am on Tuesday morning. The first flight is not until 6 in the morning! People remain calm, but many airport staff seem confused about what is going on and where people should be waiting. pic.twitter.com/4kIYteVz6s
– scott brownlee (@scottbrownlee) May 31, 2022
Dublin Airport downsizes over Covid-19 pandemic, CEO says Wednesday
“We feel that entering 2022 with 70% of our staff (pre-Covid) would be fine and we were wrong …” Philips told a parliamentary committee. “We were very wrong in terms of recovery levels.” No industry analyst believed that traffic would return to pre-pandemic levels by 2024 or 2025, he said, but in Dublin it has returned to 90%.
But the Institute for Government think tank said countries like Ireland that focused their paychecks on general subsidies instead of focusing on paying employees just for non-working hours saw larger increases in unemployment rates.
In the case of Ireland, “the pandemic-related special unemployment benefits were so generous that workers could initially receive more benefits than if they stayed in work, which perversely encouraged employers to lay off workers,” he said. the Institute.
The Paris airport authority also warned of serious disruptions at Charles-de-Gaulle airport. Travelers complained about long queues in early May.
Airport authorities said last year that they had abandoned plans to build a huge new terminal that would have allowed the airport to handle up to 40 million additional passengers a year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Last week, Dutch airline KLM stopped selling tickets for flights from Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, with a video showing slow queues and exasperated passengers.
On Tuesday, the Swedish parliament convened the CEO of the airline Swedavia to explain the long queues at Arlanda Airport in Stockholm.
On the same day, tourists arriving at Palma de Mallorca airport were waiting almost three hours after landing to get on the buses to reach their hotels, The Irish Mirror reported.
Spanish air traffic control staff are currently deciding whether to go on strike, which could further damage travel plans.
Germany saw hundreds of flights canceled after airport workers went on strike in March.
Several women also told ITV News that they were stranded in Bulgaria after their flight to Birmingham was canceled.
Tourists arriving at Spanish airports reported that they had waited almost three hours after landing to get on the buses to reach their hotels. The long queues were captured on video in Madrid
Britons arriving on holiday across Europe will find several places closed after hoteliers complain they were unable to get the staff needed to cater to the influx of tourists.
With some 250,000 vacancies in restaurants and cafes, French business owners blamed President Macron’s Covid layoff plan, which allowed staff to stay home on full pay during the pandemic.
When the pandemic began, French workers could claim up to 70% of pre-crisis pay up to a limit. Workers could be on leave for 12 months instead of the usual six.
During the crisis, the state reimbursed any wages that employers paid to their staff for hours not worked, up to a limit of 4.5 times the minimum hourly wage.
Macron himself described it as the most generous scheme in Europe. But many never returned to the industry.
The unemployment rate in France reached 7.3%, the lowest since 2008, with jobs available in other sectors.
Macron has said he is proud of his government’s emergency economic measures to support employment during the pandemic and has highlighted a reduction in unemployment from 9.6% to 7.4%.
But success in reducing unemployment has led to an influx of younger workers who traditionally support the hospitality industry in search of opportunities elsewhere.
Analysts say the same has happened with airport workers, with former employees looking for work in other positions after the sector was plunged into uncertainty by the Covid-19.
This is Amsterdam Schiphol airport. Isn’t it amazing how ALL the airports in the western world have staff shortages? Or maybe it’s being done on purpose to keep people from traveling … pic.twitter.com/GaNVz6Lg01
– Peter Niblett (@ Peteuk001) May 31, 2022