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Piles of luggage beside baggage belts in airports from Canada to Europe are driving further demand for ground handlers, and adding to summer travel chaos as airlines scramble to bring back workers lost during COVID-19. Once a cost-cutting and outsourcing target for aviation, ground handlers are now being offered raises, as frazzled passengers take to social media to complain about missing baggage. The hiring can't come fast enough as a rebound in travel and badly-needed airline revenue this summer is being weighed by congestion, rising costs and labor strife, after a two-year pandemic vacuum. Air Canada (AC.TO) said late on Wednesday it would cut flights in July and August to reduce passenger flows to a level that the air transport system can accommodate. The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, which represents ground handlers, including baggage and cargo handlers, for Air Canada among other carriers, said some Canadian workers are being offered raises and double pay to work beyond eight-hour shifts, a union official said. "It's created a bit of a bidding war," said Dave Flowers, an IAMAW national president in Canada specializing in air transportation. Flowers said there is no one explanation for the lost baggage, which is rather the result of staff shortages and flight delays that have created a "spiral effect," resulting in cases of passengers waiting up to seven days to get their bags back. It's not clear when such problems would be resolved.<br/>

Persistent staffing shortages, fewer flights and booming demand have cast a shadow on the busy July Fourth holiday weekend and the entire summer travel season. While the lifting of COVID-19 curbs and bottled-up travel demand are translating into the strongest summer since the pandemic for American carriers, frequent mass flight cancellations are creating chaos for their customers. US airlines have canceled more than 21,000 flights, or about 2.7% of the scheduled total since the Memorial Day holiday weekend in May, almost double last year's rate, according to flight-tracking service FlightAware. Flight delays are also higher than in 2021. Analysts and some industry executives don't see a meaningful improvement before fall when travel demand tends to slow down. On Tuesday, Delta warned of another round of disruptions during the July Fourth weekend when passenger traffic is projected to be the highest since before the pandemic. To mitigate the impact, it is allowing customers to rebook their trip for free. The Atlanta-based carrier has canceled about 5% of its scheduled flights in the past two weeks due to staffing, weather and ATC issues. The industry's struggle to ensure operational reliability despite repeated assurances shows the issues, which hobbled air travel last summer, have yet to be fixed. Carriers are still grappling with staffing shortages after letting go thousands of pilots at the height of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. Now, they have been aggressively hiring, with both Delta and United Airlines, for example, hiring 200 pilots a month.<br/>

US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Wednesday said he would be paying close attention to airline performance during the July 4 weekend after a large number of flight cancellations over the last holiday weekend. Airlines canceled more than 2,700 flights over the Memorial Day holiday, a harbinger of a difficult summer for travelers amid record demand and a dearth of airline workers because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Buttigieg, speaking at an airline industry meeting, urged airlines to make sure that schedules were realistic and that they had enough customer service people available to handle the inevitable problems. "You have to be prepared to support the tickets that you sell," he said. Buttigieg indicated that airlines had told him that they were working to address issues. "We will use whatever authorities are available to us to make sure the customer is having a good experience. Our hope is before resorting to measures like that the problem can be solved on the front end," Buttigieg added in comments before the Aero Club in Washington, DC. Complaints about airlines were up even before the Memorial Day weekend. The Transportation Department said in mid-June that it had received 5,079 complaints about airline service in April, up more than 320% over the 1,205 complaints received in April 2019. read more<br/>

The office of the inspector general of the U.S. Transportation Department will audit the FAA oversight of Boeing 737 and 787 production, it said on Wednesday. The government watchdog agency said it would review the processes followed by the aviation regulator, such as its approach to "identifying and resolving" production issues and "addressing allegations of undue pressure". Aircraft maker Boeing suspended deliveries of the 787 in May 2021, after the FAA raised concerns about its proposed inspection method.<br/>

A majority of domestic flights to Canada’s busiest airports were delayed or cancelled over the past week as the effects of an overloaded international network continue to ripple across the country. Some 54% of flights to the four largest airports were bumped off schedule in the seven days between June 22 and 28, according to analytics firm Data Wazo. More than 44% of the 4,815 flights were delayed while 8.5% were scrapped altogether. Toronto’s Pearson airport topped the list, with 51%t of flights delayed — more than 700 — and 12% cancelled. Montreal was runner-up at 43% delayed and 15% cancelled. The other two airports were Vancouver and Calgary. Airlines and the federal government have been scrambling to respond to scenes of endless lines, flight disruptions, lost luggage and daily turmoil at airports _ particularly at Pearson _ a problem the aviation industry has blamed on a shortage of federal security and customs officers at the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA). John Gradek, head of McGill University’s aviation management program, says carriers have used Ottawa as a “scapegoat” while scheduling more flights than they have staff or planes to provide, resulting in delays and cancellations. “The airlines have lost some of their mojo,” he said. “The government has reacted and has pumped up the resources, and we’ve still got chaos.” Canada’s airport security agency has hired more than 900 screeners since April, though many remain in training. Ottawa also suspended randomized COVID-19 testing of vaccinated passengers on June 11 through at least Thursday following sector demands to process international travellers more quickly.<br/>

Sir Richard Branson on Wednesday visited a bombed airport outside Kyiv, Ukraine to talk about rebuilding the site, which once hosted the world’s largest cargo plane. Branson, the founder of Virgin Group, was pictured walking around the Antonov terminal at Hostomel, a city that experienced heavy fighting and was briefly occupied by Russian troops. Taras Dumenko, the mayor of Hostomel wrote on Facebook that he had given a tour to the British billionaire. “Richard Branson has been steadfast in his support of Ukraine, its sovereignty, territorial integrity, advocating for the toughest sanctions against Russia, its leaders and economy,” he said. Branson spoke to local officials and Ukraine’s state-owned weapons manufacturer about rebuilding the airport, according to Dumeenko. The airfield hosted Mriya, the world’s largest cargo plane, which was destroyed in the fighting. Authorities said Mriya, which means “dream” in Ukrainian, was beyond repair but Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, has since called it a “matter of ambition” to build a replacement.<br/>

German air traffic controllers have fixed technical problems which had disrupted European travel on Wednesday, air traffic control firm DFS said. "From 9 a.m., we will resume work with 100% of air traffic," said a spokesperson for DFS, whose controllers monitor take-offs and landings at 15 international airports in Germany. The problems, which started around 3 a.m. local time (0100 GMT), were caused by an unexpected issue during a software update overnight, which forced DFS to limit air traffic to 50% of normal capacity Pan-European air traffic agency Eurocontrol said on its website that there were moderate to high delays in many parts of German airspace on Wednesday, citing issues including computer problems with air traffic control equipment, staffing and the Ukraine crisis. Frankfurt airport, one of Europe's busiest and a hub of flagship carrier Lufthansa, was affected in particular.<br/>

The German government will fast-track work permits and visas for several thousand foreign airport workers, mainly from Turkey, to help to ease summer travel chaos that has frustrated holidaymakers, German ministers said on Wednesday. Travellers across Europe are facing especially long queues at airports this summer partly because there are not enough staff to handle the rebound in demand after COVID-19 lockdowns. The support is valuable for companies in the sector, said Stefan Schulte, CE at Germany's largest airport operator Fraport. "We've been looking abroad for staff for a long time, we're also hiring staff, but the market is extremely tight," the CEO told RTL as he apologized to passengers for the flight delays and long waiting times at airports. Germany's aviation sector now aims to bring workers with airport experience to Germany, mainly from Turkey, to work with grounds crews, including in baggage handling, interior minister Nancy Faeser said Wednesday. They will have to undergo the same security checks as domestic airport workers before being allowed to work at airports, she said. Airlines, some of which had hoped to hire foreign staff through temporary work agencies, will have to employ workers directly and at standard wages, labour minister Heil said.<br/>

German trade union Verdi has called on technical staff at Hamburg Airport to go on strike on Friday, just as school holidays in the region kick off, adding to the existing industry-wide crunch. Airlines around the world had slashed jobs and other costs during the coronavirus pandemic, which grounded most flights, and have found themselves in a quandary as demand returned amid the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions. Verdi said on Wednesday that some 200 employees responsible for infrastructure maintenance at Germany's fifth busiest airport would walk off the job for 24 hours to protest at the lack of a pay rise during the pandemic period. A Hamburg Airport spokesperson said "a 24-hour strike is inappropriate" as its wage tariff negotiations with Verdi are still at a very early stage. The union said it was demanding an 8.5% salary increase over 12 months for staff at Hamburg Airport subsidiary Real Estate Maintenance, who are responsible for maintenance of infrastructure including luggage handling machinery and runways. The union said the company had offered a pay increase of 4% a year for two years. School holidays in the neighbouring northern German states of Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania begin on Friday, and Hamburg schools end for the summer on July 7.<br/>

Heathrow Airport has asked airlines to remove 30 flights from Thursday morning's schedule because it is expecting more passenger numbers than it can currently cope with. In total, 1,200 flights were scheduled to leave throughout the day. The airport claims the cancellations are necessary for both safety and to ensure as many passengers as possible catch their flights. It said individual airlines would contact people who are affected. A similar number of flights were cancelled earlier this month because of technical problems with baggage handling equipment.<br/>

Online searches for Chinese airline tickets on domestic and international routes surged on Wednesday, after Beijing said it would slash COVID-19 quarantine requirements and made changes to a state-mandated mobile app used for local travel. The unexpected moves mark a significant easing of rigid curbs that have severely curtailed travel and battered China's economy, although tough measures remain in place including a scarcity of international flights, and many social media users voiced caution. The industry ministry said on Wednesday that a Chinese mobile app that shows whether a person has travelled in a Chinese city with COVID-affected areas will no longer mark that history with an asterisk, one of the many means China has of tracking and curbing the virus's possible spread. The asterisk helped local authorities to impose curbs such as quarantines and COVID testing, and sparked widespread complaints. "It looks like a small step, but is a rather big step," a user wrote on the Twitter-like Weibo, where the announcement quickly became the top topic with more than 200m views. It came a day after Beijing eased quarantine rules and as Shanghai resumed restaurant dining following a two-month lockdown that brought China's largest city to a halt and infuriated residents. The two policies triggered a surge in travel inquiries.<br/>

One day late in 2023 an almost-empty commercial airliner is expected to lift off on a trans-Atlantic flight between Britain and the United States that Prime Minister Boris Johnson casts as a once in a generation breakthrough for aviation and the battle against climate change. With characteristic boosterism, Johnson has compared the event to the brave first nonstop flight across the Atlantic by a Vickers biplane in 1919, when British World War I veterans Jack Alcock and Arthur Brown struggled from St. John’s, Newfoundland, to Galway, Ireland. Johnson’s transport secretary, Grant Shapps, says next year’s flight will be nothing less than the dawn of “an era of guilt-free flying” for passengers worried that the aviation industry has so far contributed little to the scramble to reach anything like a “Net-Zero” world. The flight will be powered solely by sustainable aviation fuel or SAF, jet fuel that is made from greener processes and raw materials that range from cooking oil, solid waste and crop residue to synthetic kerosene made from hydrogen and recycled carbon. Pollution will still spew from the jet’s engines but the fuel is considered “sustainable” because much of the carbon it emits — often up to 80 percent of the carbon emitted from normal fuel — has already been absorbed from the atmosphere by the raw material or would have been released anyway if it had not been turned into jet fuel. The British government is labeling it a “net-zero” flight, although there will probably still need to be some purchases of carbon offset credits to make the numbers add up. Story has more.<br/>