Experts Say Airlines Themselves Are the Cause of Travel Chaos

There has been a sense among many fliers and aviation observers that the airlines themselves are at fault for many of the factors that have led to delays and cancellations in the last several months.

Now a handful of experts – two aviation consultants and a union chief – are confirming to Business Insider that a lack of planning and foresight by the airlines, coupled with a tough labor market and rising fuel prices, are the main causes of the travel chaos that has ensued at airports around the world.

And, of course, it all started with COVID-19.

While the pandemic certainly wreaked havoc on airlines, the decision by most carriers to offer early retirement and buyouts to many workers – not to mention natural attrition – has come back to hurt them now that demand is nearly back to pre-pandemic levels.

And staffing still is not.

In addition to not having enough pilots to service numerous flights, the issues have gone all the way down to even the most basic airline tasks such as baggage and cleaning planes. At one point, British Airways even told its baggage employees to stop loading luggage on short-haul flights to focus on more high-end long-haul trips. The luggage, passengers on some flights were told, would catch up to their respective destinations a day or two later.

Mostly, however, the culprit has been a pilot shortage.

“Now that you’re coming out of COVID, and the demand is actually showing signs of rapid recovery, you’re starting to see that they have fewer pilots (but have) the same amount of flying to do,” Umang Gupta, of Alton Aviation consultancy, told Business Insider. “Now you’re seeing that people are not ready to take the job at the salary levels that were offered before so they have to pay more to get the same people.

And those workers who left, for whatever reason, and then came back, might not be ready. Especially those who took that option more than two years ago when the pandemic first hit.

“(Airlines) have been too optimistic about the preparedness of people they’ve let go to come back,” said Mike Clancy, general secretary of the Prospect union, which represents air traffic controllers, licensed technical engineers, and air traffic systems specialists in the United Kingdom. “At the present minute, if you are working in an airport environment, it’s even more stressful than normal. Because the traveling public are not happy.”

And, while the requirement for air travelers entering or re-entering the United States to prove they tested negative for the virus has been rescinded is good for the airlines, it might not be good for the traveling public.

“I can’t see the summer being anything but lumpy and bumpy,” John Strickland, of JLS Consulting,” said. “There are many uncertainties.”