Staff shortages at Europe’s air traffic control blamed for ‘unacceptable’ travel disrupti
Airlines have warned that staff shortages at air traffic control across Europe are causing “unacceptable” disruption to travellers as the peak summer travel season begins. Aviation veteran Willie Walsh, chief executive of industry trade group Iata and former boss of British Airways, on Wednesday hit out at the “disappointing” performance of air traffic control bodies in Europe, which he blamed on “a lack of ATC resources nationally”. “While some areas of ATC performance have improved over 2022, we remain unacceptably behind 2019 levels,” he said. Walsh singled out Gatwick airport in London, which he said was suffering from “local . . . resource issues”, as well as staffing problems seen in France and Germany. EasyJet, the biggest airline at Gatwick, this week cancelled 1,700 flights scheduled for the summer months, blaming “challenging conditions” caused by air traffic control issues across Europe. Gatwick said it was “well-resourced” for the summer, but only 40 per cent of flights from Gatwick departed on time in the week ending July 2, the most recent period with available data, according to Eurocontrol, the region’s air traffic control manager. NATS, the company subcontracted to run Gatwick’s air traffic control operations, did not respond to a request for comment. Paris Charles de Gaulle, Lisbon and Rome’s Fiumicino airports also all saw fewer than 50 per cent of flights departing on time. Eurocontrol has repeatedly warned of a “challenging” summer, and traffic “overloads” in regions including London, Brussels and Barcelona. The aviation industry is battling to avoid a repeat of last summer’s travel chaos, which was caused by industry-wide staff shortages as companies failed to recruit new staff quickly enough when borders fully reopened following the coronavirus pandemic. Major airlines, airports and ground handling companies are confident that their staff numbers are now sufficient to handle the summer getaway in Europe, with an average of more than 30,000 daily flights scheduled in July and August. Air traffic control has instead emerged as the biggest potential flashpoint. <br/>
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Staff shortages at Europe’s air traffic control blamed for ‘unacceptable’ travel disrupti
Airlines have warned that staff shortages at air traffic control across Europe are causing “unacceptable” disruption to travellers as the peak summer travel season begins. Aviation veteran Willie Walsh, chief executive of industry trade group Iata and former boss of British Airways, on Wednesday hit out at the “disappointing” performance of air traffic control bodies in Europe, which he blamed on “a lack of ATC resources nationally”. “While some areas of ATC performance have improved over 2022, we remain unacceptably behind 2019 levels,” he said. Walsh singled out Gatwick airport in London, which he said was suffering from “local . . . resource issues”, as well as staffing problems seen in France and Germany. EasyJet, the biggest airline at Gatwick, this week cancelled 1,700 flights scheduled for the summer months, blaming “challenging conditions” caused by air traffic control issues across Europe. Gatwick said it was “well-resourced” for the summer, but only 40 per cent of flights from Gatwick departed on time in the week ending July 2, the most recent period with available data, according to Eurocontrol, the region’s air traffic control manager. NATS, the company subcontracted to run Gatwick’s air traffic control operations, did not respond to a request for comment. Paris Charles de Gaulle, Lisbon and Rome’s Fiumicino airports also all saw fewer than 50 per cent of flights departing on time. Eurocontrol has repeatedly warned of a “challenging” summer, and traffic “overloads” in regions including London, Brussels and Barcelona. The aviation industry is battling to avoid a repeat of last summer’s travel chaos, which was caused by industry-wide staff shortages as companies failed to recruit new staff quickly enough when borders fully reopened following the coronavirus pandemic. Major airlines, airports and ground handling companies are confident that their staff numbers are now sufficient to handle the summer getaway in Europe, with an average of more than 30,000 daily flights scheduled in July and August. Air traffic control has instead emerged as the biggest potential flashpoint. <br/>
