Big problems at some airports

Redwurzel said:
The airports laid a lot of their staff off and don't seem to be in a rush to re/recruit. Recruiting again could be a problem due to Brexit in parts of the UK where there are more jobs than people. Many of the smaller regional airports could benefit - the problems seem bigger at the bigger airports (London, Birmingham, Manchester). Customers are pushed toward the big airports in the UK in my opinion but others will know better than me as I don't fly a lot. Cancelling flights could be problems with pilots, cabin crew. I suspect training was stopped for nearly 2 years for pilots. Cabin crew pay has been cut over the years, so its become a low paid job and hence airlines will struggle to recruit. Unions warned this would happen. Again taking pilots and cabin crew from Eastern Europe EU countries helped, but was not the long term solution and drove wages down.
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I posted the other day that a friend of ours was paid off during the pandemic and they have asked him to go back on a lot less money.

I thought he worked for Jet2 but the wife just informed me it is Virgin Atlantic.
 
Redwurzel said:
When I have gone to Dublin, Brits are less than 10% of the traffic. And some of the Brits travelling to Dublin have EU passports, you are allowed more than one passport.
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Went to Dublin from Newcastle 3 or 4 weeks ago. We deliberately picked less attractive flight time (out early afternoon back late evening) and had no delays either way. No passport check on way home which surprised me.
As an added bonus our Ryanair flights were both a couple of minutes late arriving so we were spared the fanfare (assuming they still do that).
 
madlad7773 said:
It isn't down to Brexit at all. It's companies couldnt afford to keep people whose wages depend on there being flights and airport traffic. Same issue theatres, cinemas and hospitality had...no customers, no work, no cash, no wages, no staff needed. I agree, however, that companies could be a bit quicker out the blocks to recruit, but the companies that are recruiting heavily simply cant get the staff back as they've moved into other roles which are less risky. I work for an airline and I know we have held a list of staff we let go and invited them back. A lot of companies did this too but sadly, its not as simple as saying come back.

It'll probably be like this till around Xmas then it should pick up. Remember it took 2 years effectively out of peoples lives, so it'll probs take another 2 or best part of it to get it back. It's not great I agree, but it's a difficult one for everyone.
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Brexit didn't cause the issue in the first place, I wouldn't argue with you on that. However, Brexit isnt helping with rectifying the issue which could be easily sorted if there was an available workforce, but there isn't.

Also on a side note, I think from memory that Manchester Airport used to contract baggage, security etc to SwissPort and it was them that made their workforce redundant.

I don't think from what Ive heard that things will be any better for the summer jollies. Now where's that tent?
 
Tryasize10 said:
Brexit didn't cause the issue in the first place, I wouldn't argue with you on that. However, Brexit isnt helping with rectifying the issue which could be easily sorted if there was an available workforce, but there isn't.

Also on a side note, I think from memory that Manchester Airport used to contract baggage, security etc to SwissPort and it was them that made their workforce redundant.

I don't think from what Ive heard that things will be any better for the summer jollies. Now where's that tent?
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It could also be sorted if the companies hadn't reduced staff wages.
 
Redwurzel said:
The airports laid a lot of their staff off and don't seem to be in a rush to re/recruit. Recruiting again could be a problem due to Brexit in parts of the UK where there are more jobs than people. Many of the smaller regional airports could benefit - the problems seem bigger at the bigger airports (London, Birmingham, Manchester). Customers are pushed toward the big airports in the UK in my opinion but others will know better than me as I don't fly a lot. Cancelling flights could be problems with pilots, cabin crew. I suspect training was stopped for nearly 2 years for pilots. Cabin crew pay has been cut over the years, so its become a low paid job and hence airlines will struggle to recruit. Unions warned this would happen. Again taking pilots and cabin crew from Eastern Europe EU countries helped, but was not the long term solution and drove wages down.
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Drove wages down
Probably true
No staff due mainly to brexit means much higher wages to attract people to these jobs means higher air fares, less passengers and makes airports downsize to match the customer base.
Brexit = Uk contraction. End of.
 
Flying from Leeds on Sunday at 8am, hope at least the half term madness is out of the way, thinking of getting there about 04:30, there does seem to be loads of flights out of Leeds early morning.
 
Norman_Conquest said:
Some air companies have reduced staff wages and are now struggling to fill these positions due to staff being unwilling to return to their old job for less money.

Not hard to follow really.
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Alongside many thousands who have gone home from various eu countries and don’t fancy coming back to a country outside the eu
Good luck Uk finding people to do the jobs which keep your holiday costs low enough to get away
That’s quickly changing though.
 
Was furlough available to the airline industry? If so, bizarre it wasn't used.

It's essentially a hire and refire job otherwise and we all know how opposed the gvt is that 😉
 
Yeah, P&O rightly so go slated for it yet other companies are doing it through the back door.
Ex Footy Legs said:
Alongside many thousands who have gone home from various eu countries and don’t fancy coming back to a country outside the eu
Good luck Uk finding people to do the jobs which keep your holiday costs low enough to get away
That’s quickly changing though.
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Either way, they are trying to pay less and cannot fill the roles.

You would think they would pay more and entice people into the industry.
 
changingman said:
Was furlough available to the airline industry? If so, bizarre it wasn't used.

It's essentially a hire and refire job otherwise and we all know how opposed the gvt is that 😉
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Yes, we used furlough but tried to minimise the use of it. I know we aren't trying to hire staff back on less, but some airlines/airports are. We went more down the redundancy route. Definitely the biggest sufferers were crew and general handling airport staff.
 
madlad7773 said:
Yes, we used furlough but tried to minimise the use of it. I know we aren't trying to hire staff back on less, but some airlines/airports are. We went more down the redundancy route. Definitely the biggest sufferers were crew and general handling airport staff.
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Are you struggling to recruit staff now, and if so, what are the reasons?
 
The cheapish labour that was available in the past is not around in such numbers, but some employers have not adjusted their pay, in fact evidence from Norman C suggests they think they can employ people on lower wages - unbelievable isn't. Employees dismissed then employers are puzzled why they do not want to return. Furlough was available to airports and airlines. I can understand small employers having to lay some people off but the likes of Virgin have a billionaire owner and he only had to fund a minority of the wages most was met by the Government.

Ref ticket prices having to rise - yes they will if people want to use the big airports, but how much of the ticket price is staff wages my guess its less than 20% say £40 on a £200 ticket so a 10% wage increase puts £4 on an airline ticket. I know Virgin were paying cabin crew £19k a year, its not a lot, but they said they could get staff at that wage. £19k is not a lot above the Living wage rate (£17.2k). The job is more than serving drinks.
 
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madlad7773 said:
It isn't down to Brexit at all. It's companies couldnt afford to keep people whose wages depend on there being flights and airport traffic. Same issue theatres, cinemas and hospitality had...no customers, no work, no cash, no wages, no staff needed. I agree, however, that companies could be a bit quicker out the blocks to recruit, but the companies that are recruiting heavily simply cant get the staff back as they've moved into other roles which are less risky. I work for an airline and I know we have held a list of staff we let go and invited them back. A lot of companies did this too but sadly, its not as simple as saying come back.

It'll probably be like this till around Xmas then it should pick up. Remember it took 2 years effectively out of peoples lives, so it'll probs take another 2 or best part of it to get it back. It's not great I agree, but it's a difficult one for everyone.
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To think brexit isn’t part of the problem is plainly wrong
Many thousands from Poland etc etc didn’t get furloughed and went home (or did get furloughed and still had to go back) leaving a gap of cheap available labour in several different industries such as airlines ,hospitality, nhs, fruit pickers
This severe labour shortage is driving up wages and the hard brexit is responsible. Wages going up will continue to fuel inflation….vicious circle
 
I’m at Gatwick now heading to Munich for IFat. Huge queue for bag drop, thankfully I’ve just got a back pack. That said my 6:20 flight is delayed an hour already.
 
madlad7773 said:
It isn't down to Brexit at all. It's companies couldnt afford to keep people whose wages depend on there being flights and airport traffic. Same issue theatres, cinemas and hospitality had...no customers, no work, no cash, no wages, no staff needed. I agree, however, that companies could be a bit quicker out the blocks to recruit, but the companies that are recruiting heavily simply cant get the staff back as they've moved into other roles which are less risky. I work for an airline and I know we have held a list of staff we let go and invited them back. A lot of companies did this too but sadly, its not as simple as saying come back.

It'll probably be like this till around Xmas then it should pick up. Remember it took 2 years effectively out of peoples lives, so it'll probs take another 2 or best part of it to get it back. It's not great I agree, but it's a difficult one for everyone.
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Yes nothing to do with the East Europeans who traditionally did the manual work like baggage handling (one of the main issues) returning home after Brexit. And nothing to do with not being able to replace and recruit workers from the same vast resource pool.
Nothing at all to do with Brexit.
 
zzzzz said:
Yes nothing to do with the East Europeans who traditionally did the manual work like baggage handling (one of the main issues) returning home after Brexit. And nothing to do with not being able to replace and recruit workers from the same vast resource pool.
Nothing at all to do with Brexit.
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I agree airports themselves have struggled more with this aspect than airlines.
 
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