UK Flight Chaos - Who's at Fault ?

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Atmywitsend
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Re: UK Flight Chaos - Who's at Fault ?

Post by Atmywitsend »

TODAY JUNE 3RD 2022.
Brexit Britain to celebrate the switch from Metric to Imperial measures. Looking forward to going out for a PINT tonight. :beer1:
Heaven knows WTF I've been ordering for the last 52 years. Can we bring back outside toilets ?. Polio, Double Diamond, Babycham. Rickets, Floppy disks,
Trim Phones, Flock wallpaper The rubik's cube. What ever happened to this once great Country ? FFS. :facepalm:
'
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newkidontheblock
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Re: UK Flight Chaos - Who's at Fault ?

Post by newkidontheblock »

To be fair, US airlines are also in chaos from the virus. Initially many were sick from the virus or tested positive. But at the time air travel almost ceased so it didn’t matter. However as domestic air travel has recovered, there has been a new hurdle - mandatory vaccinations.

Many airline pilots, flight crew, and air traffic controllers chose retirement rather than comply. Now there’s shortage of people to fly the planes, crew the planes, and more importantly, guide the planes into and out of the airports.

Result? Thousands of cancelled flights. It’s gotten so bad that those that can afford it have charted private planes and are using regional or local airports to fly into and out off for their vacations.

Which leaves the rest of us, stranded, just like our British family. No Brexit required.
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Re: UK Flight Chaos - Who's at Fault ?

Post by Kammekor »

Atmywitsend wrote: Fri Jun 03, 2022 10:21 pm
Still, you have your English exceptionalism and your Blue passport to see you through these difficult times. :hattip: :bow:
Made in France :stir:
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Re: UK Flight Chaos - Who's at Fault ?

Post by Kammekor »

newkidontheblock wrote: Sun Jun 05, 2022 7:06 am
Which leaves the rest of us, stranded, just like our British family. No Brexit required.
I flew out of Amsterdam with my daughter last April, and it was horrendous. From check in to the gate took over three hours because the airport lacked staff, and still is lacking staff. No security staff, no apron staff, lack of staff everywhere. The plane was delayed for two hours because of the airport's incompetence.

In the past all employees were put on flexible contracts, then wages were cut to increase profitability of the airport, then COVID came and 90% of the staff were laid off, and now they're short of staff, seriously short of staff. So serious that some incoming flights have to come in empty.
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Re: UK Flight Chaos - Who's at Fault ?

Post by Doc67 »

After listening to a few industry 'experts' on the radio in the last few weeks, the general consensus is this: The airline/airport sector laid-off staff because furlough payments ended before travel restrictions disappeared and with much less demand they were surplus. Last year there were stories of people paying £800 just for covid tests for a family of four to go to Spain, plus the serious problems if people tested positive when trying to get home, so many people just stayed at home. (That caused travel chaos in the UK but that's another story.)

This summer all the restrictions for Europe have effectively gone and there is pent up demand. However, laid-off airport staff have moved on and got new jobs, normal non shift-work jobs, non public facing jobs, better paid jobs etc., and they ain't going back. Maybe management thought they would all sit at home by the phone waiting for a call.

New staff need thorough security checking, especially airside ones, plus training etc, and that takes time and currently it's taking a very long time now. Would you wait 2+ months for a start date for a £10 an hour shift-work job and have to deal with angry pissed off travellers?

I am arriving at Heathrow Terminal 2 tomorrow at 7.30am. I will let you know just how bad it really is.
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Re: UK Flight Chaos - Who's at Fault ?

Post by Freightdog »

For staff to work airside, they have to go through security vetting. It takes time on a good day. I compared the UK system to the Canadian system a decade ago, and the UK system is slow. When normal hiring is in process. This is after the UK improved the process from years before.

You try to ramp up an operation from tick-over to full service and it will fail, as nearly every company is/was responsible from processing its own applicants, and nearly every company has had staff working from home.

Post Brexit, the UK CAA (a bit of DfT) has been in the process of rebuilding itself after years of being under, first JAA, then EASA. When we transitioned from JAA to EASA, the UK had to defer some elements of licensing due to running out of time with an impending implementation date. Despite years of preparation. Now, that process is being carried out in the opposite direction, and they’ve created quite a few bureaucratic bottle necks.

Many ground handling companies use temporary staff to cover traditionally busy seasons. Hiring for these generally starts just a couple of months prior, from past experience. I gather that few have thought about this, to add in extra time to cover the rush.

Most recently (4weeks ago) on my way back from an assignment, the airline that I was travelling with were pleased to announce our landing ahead of schedule at Heathrow, despite having incurred a departure delay in the Middle East. We then sat waiting for some 45minutes while the aircraft occupying our stand (no names, but a big national airline based at Heathrow) were delayed due to a lack of ground crew for that departure.
Long haul operations, with much reduced staff.
Once disembarked, oddly, Border control was pretty swift, allowing a comfortable wait while baggage turned up. All in, I left Heathrow over two hours after scheduled arrival.

It doesn’t bode well.
Worldwide, it’s an industry that was hit hard by the Pandemic, and the recovery process shows much of the same strategic thinking. Or lack of. Fill the seats!!! Sell sell sell…
The UK does have added complications, no matter what they say.
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Re: UK Flight Chaos - Who's at Fault ?

Post by IraHayes »

Atmywitsend wrote: Sat Jun 04, 2022 12:46 am TODAY JUNE 3RD 2022.
Brexit Britain to celebrate the switch from Metric to Imperial measures. Looking forward to going out for a PINT tonight. :beer1:
Heaven knows WTF I've been ordering for the last 52 years. Can we bring back outside toilets ?. Polio, Double Diamond, Babycham. Rickets, Floppy disks,
Trim Phones, Flock wallpaper The rubik's cube. What ever happened to this once great Country ? FFS. :facepalm:
'
Double Diamond… now there’s a blast from the past.
Atmywitsend
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Re: UK Flight Chaos - Who's at Fault ?

Post by Atmywitsend »

BREAKING ; Brexiters are losing their shit as they now have to stand in 3 + hour queues and are now treated the same way as other
non - EU tourists. The EU doesn't seem to understand that ENGLISH people are supposed to get special treatment as we once had a Empire
and won 2 world wars, and 1 world cup.
Roses are red
Your passport is blue
Now stand over there
In that F***in long queue. :oops: :oops: :oops:

Airlines with massive staff shortages calling for emergency visas to be issued to foreign nationals to deal
thousands of vacancies. But nothing to do with Brexit, right ?
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Apparition
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Re: UK Flight Chaos - Who's at Fault ?

Post by Apparition »

I just flew to Greece for a week via Gatwick with EasyJet. No delays and no queues, but we may have been lucky.

Side note: Greece is amazing.
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Re: UK Flight Chaos - Who's at Fault ?

Post by CEOCambodiaNews »

Flight cancellations and London tube strike hamper Britons’ return to work
EasyJet axes a further 37 services as most underground stations in centre of capital are closed
Gwyn Topham
Last modified on Mon 6 Jun 2022 16.22 BST

Transport troubles have hampered the return to work for many after the jubilee weekend, with more flight cancellations and a tube strike causing widespread disruption.

EasyJet cancelled a further 37 flights on Monday, as the staffing issues that have plagued the airline over half-term continued. Thousands more passengers had their travel plans upturned, after more than 80 flight cancellations by the airline on Sunday.

The airline blamed a “challenging operating environment” for the cancellations, which left some customers stranded abroad at the end of the half-term holiday.
Worker shortages as international travel rebounded have been blamed by airlines and airports for most of the recent disruption, compounded by air traffic control restrictions and bad weather in recent days.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... und-closed
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