Chaos at airports

Chaos at airports Strikes, canceled flights and piled-up suitcases: airports start the summer in a chaotic scenario The summer arrives with uncertainty at major airports such as Gatwick (London) and Schiphol (Amsterdam), which have announced a reduction in flights due to a shortage of staff to cope with the high volume of travelers. There are too many travelers for too few flights this summer. In recent days, major airports such as Gatwick, in London, or Schiphol, in Amsterdam, have been forced to reduce the number of flights due to a shortage of airline and ground staff, according to both entities. In both cases, they have warned that, if the situation is not remedied, there will be queues, delays and last-minute cancellations. "Not everything is possible," said Schiphol airport director Dick Benschop, who has "guaranteed that the vast majority of passengers will be able to travel safely and reliably" from there. Gatwick, for example, will go from 825 flights operating each day in July to 850 in August, promising that its passengers will enjoy the "most reliable and best quality" of service. Schiphol will have many more, with 67,500 daily departures in July and 72,500 in August. The truth is that airports are not having an easy few weeks. This weekend, at Heathrow we saw a shocking image of dozens of suitcases piled up due to technical problems, which would reach their recipients, they promised, in one or two days. This problem caused 10% of the flights scheduled for Monday to be suspended. Strikes, stoppages... Schiphol has also experienced this week the strike of part of the airport's cleaning staff. The workers were against not receiving the 5.25 euro per hour subsidy offered by the airport due to 16% cuts in flights and passengers, something that some 15,000 workers do receive. At this airport, the airline KLM is going to be the hardest hit, suffering about half of the cancelled flights. This will not come free of charge for Schiphol, the airline warns, holding the airport responsible for any losses it may suffer as a result of this rescheduling. EasyJet has also reduced its flight plans for these dates. If they had previously announced that they would operate 97% of the flights they had before the pandemic, that percentage will be 90% between July and September. "We believe this capacity and cost impact is exceptional this summer," said Johan Lundgren, the company's CEO. To add fuel to the fire, this Monday also saw a demonstration in Brussels of 80,000 people in a general strike called by the unions in the absence of measures to tackle inflation, which forced the cancellation of all departures from the city's airport, while arrivals were maintained. In addition, Brussels Airlines pilots and cabin crew will strike from Thursday 23 to Saturday 25, while Ryanair staff will strike from 24 to 26. https://www.lasexta.com/noticias/economia/huelgas-vuelos-cancelados-maletas-apiladas-aeropuertos-inician-verano-escenario-caotico_2022062162b1884d1ac17b0001426362.html