The shortage of pilots has now become one of the major concerns for airlines.. Lufthansaat the time of the presentation of its activity for the first half of 2022, puts it at the top of the list of disruption factors. The company also cites absences due to illness and untimely events.
Having laid off some of their staff during the Covid crisis, many carriers are now desperate to find new staff in the face of soaring demand. Faced with an equation that is impossible to solve in the short term - the situation should stabilise in 2023 with the arrival of new pilots...
The shortage of pilots has now become one of the major concerns for airlines.. Lufthansaat the time of the presentation of its activity for the first half of 2022, puts it at the top of the list of disruption factors. The company also cites absences due to illness and untimely events.
Having laid off some of their staff during the Covid crisis, many carriers are now desperate to find new recruits in the face of soaring demand. Faced with an equation that is impossible to solve in the short term - the situation should stabilise in 2023 with the arrival of new pilots on the market - they must to reduce their flights.
Lufthansa has not yet put forward precise figures, but the German airline has already confirmed that its main Frankfurt hub will probably be the most affected. And that this would last until March 2023. SAS Scandinavian Airlines has already put a figure on the number of flights cancelled. They will concern 1,600 flights in September and October. They are, according to the company, the consequence of the strikes of the summer.
Frankfurt airport reveals the Covid effect on its staffIn its recent presentation of the results for the first half of 2022, the airport of Frankfurtthe main hub for Lufthansademonstrates the covid effect on the wage bill. Detailed figures analyse job losses by sector. For 2019, the airport's payroll totalled 20,797 employees, broken down into 9,765 people working in airport handling (baggage handlers, aircraft handling, etc.), 6,719 in administrative tasks and 4,308 in security services. At 30 June 2022, this payroll was 21.7% lower than in 2019. This represents 4,512 fewer jobs. The number of security guards was down by 3.7%, or 158 jobs. The problem lies mainly in the assistance sector. Employment in this sector fell to 7,391 agents, a drop of almost 22%. This largely explains the delays in aircraft departures and baggage problems at the Lufthansa hub. |
And finally.., in the United Statesthe shortage of pilots is also leading to flight cancellations, particularly in November. It's a very busy month because of the Thanksgiving holiday. According to the analyses of consultants working on air capacity, American Airlines to cut nearly 29,000 the number of frequencies in November more than 12% of its total capacity. Delta would be the second carrier to cut the most frequencies. The company would thus be cancelling almost 4,300 flights, or 3.3% of its total supply.
Berlin introduces online planning for security checksPassengers departing from Berlin Brandenburg International (BER) can now book their access to security checks. This new service, called BER Runway, allows passengers to book a time slot online for individual passage through security checks at Terminal 1. This will help to reduce waiting times. The BER Runway service is free of charge. Berlin is in fact the first airport in Europe to introduce this technology. How does it work? BER Runway bookings can be made on the website and in the BER application. They are available 72 hours to one hour before departure for Schengen flights or 72 hours to one and a half hours for non-Schengen flights. The time slots are offered within a time window of 60 to 360 minutes before departure. The flight number and e-mail address must be given when booking a time slot. Access to the security service can be selected at a fixed time every quarter of an hour. Once in the terminal, passengers will find the information on the dedicated BER Runway queue. They can use it 10 minutes before or up to 10 minutes after the selected time. Reservations and boarding passes are checked before access. Runway BER gives travellers a visibility which airports often lack: the ability to anticipate waiting and departure times. It also makes it easier for the authorities to calculate passenger flows and react accordingly. The airport still recommends that passengers arrive at the terminal 2.5 hours before departure.  Berlin Airport launches security slot reservation system (Photo: Oliver Lang/Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg GmbH) |
