International travel from Europe was on the road to making a promising start to recovery in 2022. However, chaos at many European airports will likely hinder growth as queues and cancellations quickly become air travel norms. According to GlobalData, the leading data and analytics company, airlines are failing to adequately prepare for the travel rebound, which has led to staff shortages.
“International departures from European countries are expected to reach 69 percent of 2019 figures in 2022, according to GlobalData forecasts. While destinations are eager to welcome visitors, supply cannot meet demand following extreme staffing deficits and industrial disputes, which has coincided with a rebound in international travel,” commented Hannah Free, Travel and Tourism Analyst at GlobalData.
In addition to observed chaos and cancellations at several European airports, the travel industry’s recovery also faces other challenges, including inflation, the rising cost of living, and the Russia-Ukraine conflict. All these challenges are likely to dampen travel demand significantly.
“Airports like London Heathrow and Amsterdam’s Schiphol have been forced to ask airlines to cut flights. At the same time, many carriers have had to pre-emptively cull their schedules by the thousands, affecting millions of holidaymakers. easyJet has reportedly cut more than 11,000 flights from its summer schedule. Meanwhile, British Airways has now cancelled 13 percent of its summer schedule, following a statement on July 6, 2022, that the company is to axe another 10,300 short-haul flights up to the end of October 2022,” continued Free.
Both easyJet and British Airways have noted staff shortages as the reason for the culling of flights. However, upon analysing British Airways’ hiring trends, it is apparent that the airline has failed to prepare for a rebound in travel demand this summer.
In November 2021, British Airways announced that it would be increasing its workforce by 15 percent, adding around 4,000 personnel, including pilots, cabin crew, ground staff and back-office roles, as part of a recruitment drive to prepare for post-COVID-19 recovery.
However, the pledge has fallen short after British Airways reportedly laid off as many as 10,000 jobs during the pandemic. Furthermore, according to data on GlobalData’s Job Analytics Database, British Airways had not increased the number of job postings on its career pages until at least March 2022. GlobalData found that active job postings dropped by 18.4 percent between November 2021 and February 2022.
“While this example looks specifically at British Airways, it should be emphasised that this is an industry-wide issue with massive staff shortages, following cuts during the pandemic, causing major issues for several airline," said Free. "The interconnected nature of the tourism ecosystem - which sees hotels, airlines, car rental firms, tour operators, cruise lines and others dependent on each other along the traveller journey - means that disruption issues at any point along this chain have the potential to negatively affect the others. Unfortunately, prolonged financial hardship for several industry players is the result of cancelled flights.”
