In France, 38 % of travelers suffered from delays or cancellations of flights between May and August, according to data from Airhelp. In question, in particular, the lack of personnel.
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Too much dismissed during the crisis, airports and airlines found themselves very devoid when the recovery came. This summer, the passengers had to arm himself with a lot of patience. Delays and flight cancellations have multiplied in Europe and particularly in France. According to data collected by Airhelp, one of the largest companies specializing in the recovery of compensation due to passengers, in France, between May and August, 38 % of the 20 million travelers suffered from delays or cancellations of flights. Or 10 points more than in 2019, last year before the pandemic.
However, at the time, 28 million passengers had been transported from French airports. All of Europe was affected: 35 % of passengers saw their plane arriving late or their flight simply canceled. Unsurprisingly, Airhelp notes in a study published on September 23, it is the lack of personnel in airports or in airlines which is the first cause of punctuality problems. It must be said that, during the crisis linked to the COVID-19, many companies cut the serpe in their workforce.
Like the British low cost company Easyjet, which, in 2020, had dismissed a third of its staff, or 4,500 positions. Before announcing, in June 2022, a reduction in its capacities for lack of employees … “In June, in particular, there was a tension on the workforce, the commercial personnel [PNC] and the pilots”, recognizes a executive manager of a company. “Some,” he adds, like Easyjet, “experienced a difficult restart”. Other low cost were able to leave faster, such as Ryanair or Wizz Air, because they had deleted fewer positions: 15 % for the Irish company and 20 % for its Hungarian rival, while lowering the remuneration.
Weight on finances
As vigorous as the recovery, the activity has not yet found its levels before the crisis. At the end of August, the European sky was crisscrossed by nearly 31,000 daily flights on average, against 35,000 in the same period in 2019. And the rebound in the activity did not surprise everyone. “Emirates has not been assigned” by delays and cancellations, welcomes Cédric Renard, French director general of the Gulf Company. According to him, “she had planned the rise in charge by launching since the fall of 2021 a recruitment program of 4,000 PNCs, 600 pilots and 1,200 qualified engineers and technicians”. According to him, Emirates did not “cancel theft”.
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