Crisis in Europe’s skies .. 15,700 flights canceled by Investing.com

Investing.com – Of the 25,000 canceled flights this August, European airlines alone canceled more than 15,700 flights scheduled to fly in August.

According to international reports, airlines around the world have canceled more than 25,000 flights from their flight schedules for August, 60 percent of which are in Europe.

The large number of cancellations comes on the back of staff shortages and other issues faced by airports in Europe and the world, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.

Additional information

The latest data provided by Syria shows that Europe has been the hardest hit region so far, with a total of 15,788 flights scheduled to fly in Europe canceled in August.

However, while this represents a significant number of flight cancellations, it represents only 2 percent of the entire flight schedule for Europe in August.

Turkey is in the lead

According to Syria, Turkish Airlines canceled most flights for the month of August, with Turkey canceling 4,408 departures last week alone.

Turkish Airlines followed British Airways with 3,600 cancellations, easyJet with 2,045 cancellations, Lufthansa with 1,888 cancellations and Wizz Air with 1,256 cancellations.

Lufthansa (ETR:) recently announced it would cancel 2,000 flights from Frankfurt and Munich this summer, and the airline said the decision was made in light of staff shortages at the airports and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

In terms of flight cancellations, travel intelligence site Mabrian revealed earlier this week that Germany, the UK, Italy, Spain, France, the Netherlands, Greece, Austria, Portugal and Denmark have canceled the largest number of flights scheduled to travel between July 1 and 15.

Although no data is available for August, the number of canceled flights in August is expected to be higher than the number of canceled flights between July 1 and July 15.

Severe crisis

According to a study by German company Allianztrade, air travelers in Europe should prepare for tough times in the aviation industry, such as flight cancellations or ticket price hikes.

The results of the study show that ticket prices will rise sharply this year and airlines will not have the financial resources to solve the labor shortage problem.

Many flight cancellations are likely to become the norm and airlines have significantly hiked ticket prices due to the 89% rise in kerosene prices since the start of the year, the study said. .

President of Alliance (Tadaul): Airlines expect fares to rise by an average of 21% this year over last year as they seek to recoup two years of losses due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The cause of the crisis

European airports are left helpless in the face of chaos and confusion inside their airports after the rush of passengers with the movement of the summer season for this year, which rose to 325.8% globally and 412.3% in Europe in May 2022. .

It comes as European airport and airline officials do not expect to let go of thousands of staff at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, plunging them into a crushing crisis after being unable to cope with losses.

According to the European Airports Association, 66% of European airports are expected to experience chaos between delays and cancellations, and delays in passenger bags through several major European airports in Britain, Germany, France, the Netherlands and Belgium. , Spain and others, and this can lead to flight cancellations due to staff shortages.

For the first time

Europe’s largest and busiest airport, Heathrow Airport in the British capital London, has been hit by a violent crisis that has prompted authorities to reduce passenger numbers and set a daily limit of 100,000 passengers. per day, till September 11, in a first-of-its-kind incident.

Heathrow Airport has called on international airlines to suspend ticket sales for the next two months due to an estimated 1,300 flights per day.

At the same time, the general manager of Heathrow Airport issued a statement saying that some key sections of the airport were suffering from a significant shortage of staff employed by airlines to manage and handle baggage check-ins. .

Europe is suffocating

Officials at Gatwick Airport, Britain’s second-busiest airport, have announced they will put a cap on take-offs and landings this summer and will allow only 825 take-offs and landings in July, with around 850 daily operations. Allowed next August.

Germany’s airports and airlines were in chaos as German Lufthansa announced that it would cancel nearly 1,000 flights this July due to a lack of trained staff, mainly affecting Germany’s two main airports. Frankfurt and Munich.

At France’s Charles de Gaulle airport, several flights were canceled after the French Civil Aviation Authority requested a 17% reduction in flights due to a labor strike.

In Belgium, Brussels Airport is facing severe travel disruptions, and the airport has already canceled at least 315 flights, disrupting the travel plans of more than 40,000 passengers.

In the Netherlands, a similar crisis occurred at Schiphol Airport, which imposed an unprecedented cap on the number of passengers per day at the airport this summer. Due to lack of staff, passengers stand for long time in front of the counters.

In Spain, queues and chaos at Spain’s airports prompted an extra 500 staff at busy airports after 15,000 passengers were unable to catch their flights.

More than a thousand passengers were unable to catch their flights on a single day at Ireland’s Dublin Airport due to long queues and severe overcrowding at the country’s main airport.