LONDON (Parliament Politics Magazine) – Airports criticised by a Ryanair boss for failing to hire enough employees to handle the increase in travellers, claiming they only had “one job to do.”
Chief Financial Officer Neil Sorahan stated that several governments and airports have to answer for not staffing up effectively.
His remarks come at a time when huge disruptions and cancellations due to airport worker shortages have occurred recently.
Airports claimed that since late last year, they had been hiring security personnel.
Most UK airports, from Heathrow to Edinburgh, are represented by the Airport Operators Association (AOA), which said that the vast majority of customers across the UK were now leaving on their holidays with no or very little disruption.
The spokesperson further stated that industry cooperation was critical if any positions for ground handling personnel were to be filled.
The airline reported profits of €170 million (£145 million) for the three months ending in June, Mr. Sorahan claimed Ryanair was having a “phenomenal” summer and that the greatest challenge the firm has encountered was “air traffic control disruptions all across Europe.”
As a result of inadequate personnel, he stated, you had to bring ANSPs [air navigation service providers] and various governments to account for not hiring the staff appropriately.
Equally, the airports themselves had one job to do, which was to guarantee they had enough handlers and security personnel. The timetables were available months in advance.
They had managed to staff up for 73 more aircrafts well in advance, but the airports must improve their planning for next year, he added.
The travel industry has found it challenging to appoint, train, and security-check new personnel fast enough to keep up with the spike in demand after losing thousands of jobs during the pandemic.
Airports have also come under fire for being unable to accommodate additional flights, while airlines have been accused of accepting more reservations than they can handle.
Leaders in the aviation industry have countered that more might have been done by the government to assist the industry during the pandemic.
Strike action has also been a danger to the sector, as many employees call for salary increases to keep up with the rising cost of living.
Ryanair has fought with unions about salary cuts made during the pandemic, but the airline claimed to have reached agreements with more than 80% of its pilots and almost 70% of its cabin employees.
The group stated they hoped to conclude deals with the little remaining balance in the near future.
According to Mr. Sorahan, any strikes that have occurred have had a little impact on services.
Ryanair has recently experienced the least cancellations and disruptions of major European airlines, despite ongoing labour disputes over wages and conditions in Belgium, France, and Spain.
The air travel consultancy OAG stated Ryanair cancelled 0.3 percent of flights in the first half of 2022, compared to British Airways’ 3.5 percent and Easyjet’s 2.8 percent.
Michael O’Leary, the CEO of Ryanair, previously told the BBC that the company’s solid balance sheet before the pandemic allowed it to retain workers, albeit at a lower pay rate, and maintain training programmes at the height of Covid so they could ramp up operations when restrictions were relaxed.
Since pandemic restrictions were released, many people are taking their first summer vacations, said Mr. Sorahan, who claimed that Ryanair was completely staffed and running more than 3,000 flights daily.
In a statement, Ryanair stated that it was sure they could run nearly all of their planned flights, with the least amount of disruptions and delays for their guests and their families.
The airline reported a rise in passenger counts to 45.5 million, up 9 percent from before the Covid epidemic, although its profits for the first quarter were still less than pre-Covid levels.
The airline said that its fuel costs had increased by 560 percent to €1 billion and that Easter reservations and tickets had been badly harmed by the Ukraine war.
According to Mr. O’Leary, the company was unable to estimate a profit for the entire financial year due to the unpredictability of fuel prices, the danger of new Covid variants, and the ongoing war in Ukraine.
While they were still optimistic that the high vaccination rates in Europe would enable the aviation and tourism sectors to fully recover and put Covid behind them, they could not dismiss the possibility of new Covid variants in the autumn of 2022. Their experience demonstrates how vulnerable the travel industry still was, he said.
