For the Frenchman Benot espinet, the Easter holiday just passed is a mixed memory. On the one hand, he can finally travel this spring. On the other hand, his activities in the past few days have frequently hit a wall.
One of his most annoying links is travel. “When I returned to Paris from Barcelona, the booked cheap airline ticket was cancelled at the last minute, which made me almost never come back. Finally, I had to book a more expensive ticket.” He said in an interview with China business news.
In fact, espine’s experience is the epitome of recent European and American tourists. In the past two weeks, more than 1000 flights have been cancelled across the UK alone, including more than 100 flights cancelled by British Airways and easyJet over a weekend.
Atlantic China Welding Consumables Inc(600558) the situation on the other side is not optimistic. Low cost airlines such as Southwest Airlines and spirit were also forced to cancel flights earlier this month; JetBlue reduced its flight capacity by 8% ~ 10% in May and said it planned to make similar cuts to its summer flight schedule; Alaska Airlines cut its flight schedule until June.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) predicts that the travel demand in Europe may reach 86% in 2019 in 2022, but the labor shortage may hinder the recovery of the aviation industry.
why is the labor shortage in the aviation industry
Paul Charles, chief executive of the PC agency, a London based travel consultancy, said that was frequently cancelled mainly because many airlines and airports were unable to cope with the recovery at a time when travel demand rebounded rapidly. The deeper reason behind this is that the problem of labor shortage in the aviation industry is becoming more and more serious
Recently, some airlines and airports have reported the largest number of tourist trips since the outbreak of the epidemic. In March, London Heathrow Airport received 4.2 million passengers, more than seven times more than a year ago. According to the US Transportation Safety Administration, the passenger volume of the country has reached nearly 90% of the pre epidemic level in recent months.
But at the same time, airlines and airports are facing a shortage of people. Heathrow airport, easyJet and other airlines have warned that human resources have been “stretched”, and it is not clear whether they can continue to meet the surge in travel demand.
For why the recovery of the labor market is slower than the recovery of demand, Courtney Miller, general manager of the analysis department of the air current, believes that the primary reason is that the whole aviation industry has laid off tens of thousands of employees in the past two years. According to the air current, more than 5000 pilots left (or were asked to leave) the aviation industry in 2022 alone. According to the industry media transport world and group air transport, during the epidemic, many airports had large-scale layoff plans, and some airports even laid off a third of their employees.
Kully Sandhu, managing director of aviation recruitment network, said that after a long vacation, airport and airline staff found more stable and profitable opportunities, rather than returning to jobs with long working hours and low wages. At the same time, the uncertainty of the future epidemic also urges people in the industry to seek safer career opportunities.
In addition, easyJet airlines and other airlines have said that the resurgence of the epidemic in Europe has led to the absence of staff due to isolation and illness, which is an important reason for the company’s lack of transport capacity recently. One of the more extreme examples is that nearly one fifth of the employees of eurowings discover, a newly established airline of Lufthansa, are ill recently, which makes the company lack both crew and pilots.
can the aviation industry save itself in time
Although there were frequent trips during the Easter holiday, espine said it would not affect his next travel plan. “Spring has come and summer is not far away. Nothing can hinder my travel.” He said.
Many analysts predict that the travel demand in Europe and the United States will continue to pick up in the next period of time. According to the data of tourism data company OAG, the forward booking volume of air tickets between Britain and the United States from April to August has increased by more than 700% compared with the same period in 2021.
Charles believes that there is expected to be a “blowout” in international travel demand in the future, but the biggest problem at present is whether airlines can fill employee vacancies in the short term.
Matt Simpson, senior analyst of Jiasheng group, said in an interview with China business that on the one hand, it depends on whether the aviation industry can actively carry out self rescue actions, on the other hand, it depends on the situation of epidemic prevention and control.
In the view of Henry harteveldt, an analyst at atmosphere research group, a market research institution, aviation industry is not easy to save itself. The reason is that airlines have been recruiting new pilots, but training a pilot is very expensive. At the same time, it takes more time to recruit and train new employees in the aviation industry
According to L3 Harris, an American pilot training organization, generally speaking, it costs at least $66995 to obtain a commercial pilot license. According to Willie Walsh, director general of IATA, unlike other industries, the aviation industry cannot recruit an employee on Friday and will let him work next Monday. Because they need background checks and training. In general, background checks and safety reviews are part of a broader series of verifications that aviation staff must pass, usually up to 15 weeks.
Recently, the British government’s deputy secretary of state in charge of transport affairs Kotz said that the government has been trying to find a solution to the above problems. Coates has written to aviation executives that by the end of April, the government will cancel a rule that companies need to complete background checks on new employees before starting training courses.
However, he stressed that statutory instruments must be approved by the British Parliament. “Although we are acutely aware of the need to allow more employees to enter the aviation industry, we must strike a balance with the risks of internal threats and other security factors. This will always be our main focus.”
In this regard, Johan Lundgren, CEO of easyJet, said that if the review of the company’s nearly 100 employees could be handled earlier, the company’s flight cancellations would be greatly reduced.
