Australian air travelers have been warned to expect more disruptions over the next 12 months as the industry strives to cover the critical shortage of workers ahead of the July school holidays.
Key points:
- Sydney Airport CEO Geoff Culbert says airports are struggling to hire enough workers
- He says there will still be a shortage of staff during the upcoming school holidays
- Passengers say they have recently suffered canceled and delayed flights, long queues and lost luggage
It has been a hot month for passengers, who have faced delays, cancellations and lost luggage during the last Easter break and the long weekend of the Queen’s birthday.
Employers are rushing to fill 5,000 vacancies around the Sydney airport grounds, which cut 15,000 jobs during the border closure.
Sydney Airport CEO Geoff Culbert said the 7.30am airports will continue to struggle to recruit enough workers on time for peak periods.
“I’m not going to sweeten it,” Culbert said.
Sydney Airport Executive Director Geoff Culbert says passengers should be prepared for further delays. (ABC News: John Gunn)
“It will be a challenge. We will still have staff shortages in the school holidays from June to July. We will put everything we can into it.
“I think you’ll see airports struggling to hire staff and hire for the next 12 months.”
Sydney Airport requires domestic travelers to arrive two hours before the flight and international travelers to arrive three hours before, to take into account the delays.
All over the world, airports are struggling to cope with the resurgence of travelers.
“It’s not up to par” – customers blast airlines on social media
Longtime Qantas customer Kevin Burke says the Qantas brand has been tarnished by poor service. (ABC News: Brendan Mounter)
Customers have expressed frustration with Australian airlines on social media, complaining of flight delays, cancellations, lost luggage, long queues at airports, inability to reach center staff of calls and accusations of unfair terms and conditions to flight credits.
At 7.30am ABC have spoken to Qantas and Virgin passengers, whose luggage has been missing since April.
“I followed Virgin several times and they told me the same story: ‘The bag arrives’ … but it never came,” said traveler Clinton Press.
Press said he was not satisfied with the amount Virgin had offered as compensation.
Virgin refused to be interviewed, but said she worked all day to help her clients.
Qantas staff ordered passenger bags at Perth Airport in April. (ABC News: Scott Holdaway)
Kevin Burke, a longtime Qantas customer, traveled from Darwin to London on a number of connecting flights.
He said at 7.30am ABC that the trip was riddled with problems.
“I think the Qantas brand is very, very neat. The service is not up to par,” he said.
“When we arrived at Heathrow, the pilot told us that all the luggage on the plane had been left in Australia to make room for the fuel.”
Mr. Burke’s luggage arrived three days later.
Passengers sleep at the airport after a canceled flight
Andrew and Kat Gaudin’s children had to sleep on the ground at Dallas Airport after their flight was canceled. (Supplied)
Last Thursday, a Qantas flight from Dallas to Sydney was canceled at 2am due to an engineering problem, which left many sleeping on the airport floor, including some of the Gaudin family. .
“No one was telling us what was going on,” said traveler Kat Gaudin.
“When the [kids] they woke up, they were in a bad mood, hungry, a little confused. ”
The mother of four said she had been “disappointed” by the national carrier.
Qantas has apologized for the inconvenience caused to the passengers of the flight.
Kat Gaudin says the children were irritated and confused by the situation. (Supplied)
The company’s chief executive, Alan Joyce, has changed his language after facing a backlash from customers over his comments that passengers were not “fit” during Easter, admitting that the industry was “rusty” in as it worked again.
Joyce declined to speak at 7:30 a.m. ABC, but last night told reporters in Doha that “there are blogs on the chain all along.”
In a statement, Qantas said it was “working hard to fix the problems we have” and apologized to customers for delaying their luggage.
“We are very confident about the school holidays [that] we will see a different result “.
Dismissed Qantas workers find work, but polls say they are worse off
Long queues clashed with passengers at Sydney Airport on the long weekend in June. (ABC News: Kamin Gock)
The Transportation Workers Union argues that outsourcing Qantas workers in 2020 has caused the current problems.
“This is a fundamental structural problem within aviation that was deliberately created by Qantas during the Joyce administration,” said TWU National Secretary Michael Kaine.
The Federal Court later found that the dismissals were illegal and the airline now plans to appeal to the High Court.
A TWU survey of 1,100 former Qantas workers outsourced in 2020 found that while most have found new jobs, 70% say they are worse off.
And 71 percent say they have experienced financial difficulties, while 30 percent have developed depression or anxiety.
Qantas denies union claims over subcontracting.
Watch this story at 7.30 on ABC iview.