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The old continent faces an airport labor strike that has generated the cancellation of hundreds of flights and delays. On the one hand, the lack of personnel at the airports and on the other, the few on the payroll demand better working and salary conditions.
Cancelled. Summer is the season in Europe when air travel was supposed to return to normal after two years of the pandemic, but now it risks becoming the summer when mass and low-cost travel collapses, at least in the integrated market. of Europe.
Labor shortages and strikes have already caused disruption at airports in London, Lisbon, Amsterdam, Paris, Rome and Frankfurt this spring.
Big airlines like ‘EasyJet’ are canceling hundreds of summer flights while new strikes are scheduled in Belgium, Spain, France and the Scandinavian countries.
Following drastic job and wage cuts when travel was brought to a standstill by Covid-19, staff across the industry, from pilots to baggage handlers, are calling for pay rises and better working conditions.
Norwegian Air in June promised a 3.7% salary increase for pilots, among other benefits, in a sign of what other airlines could offer to avoid labor disputes.
In France, workers at France’s main airport operator ADP.PA have promised to cancel a strike notice for this weekend, as firefighters at Paris’s Charles De Gaulle international airport did the day before.
Meanwhile, British Airways check-in staff at London’s Heathrow airport also called off a strike after the airline agreed to improve wages. The proposed strike would have included less than half of the Heathrow-based airline’s check-in and ground staff.
In Germany, a union representing ‘Lufthansa’ ground staff is demanding at least 350 euros more per month for 12 months to cushion the effects of inflation. Staff call on the airline to end its “cost-cutting madness” in a letter to the supervisory board, accusing it of mismanagement and contributing to the recent chaos by laying off too many workers.
For its part, the Scandinavian airline canceled almost 70% of its flights on Friday, due to a pilots’ strike that left thousands of tourists stranded abroad.
Industry leaders head to a summit in Qatar this week, and one of the big issues will be who bears responsibility for the chaos between airlines, airports and governments.
Industry executives say it’s difficult to recruit for a relatively low-paid, physically demanding job. Also training staff and obtaining security clearance to work at airports takes months.
Another key that affects the sector is that many workers refuse to return to their jobs because they are attracted by short-term work or are opting for early retirement. In any case, the European summer will not be the dream post-pandemic return that many expected and those who travel could face delays due to this labor crisis.
With Reuters and AP
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