Travel experts have blamed the continuing shortage of staff, the Interior Ministry’s monthly delays in inspecting the safety of flight crew and the loss of thousands of experienced staff who were fired during the pandemic but did not return after finding work elsewhere. place.
Paul Charles, CEO of The PC Agency, said: “In the short term, you have Covid [absence] which is becoming less of a problem, but in the long run there are still complications in recruiting enough staff.
“BA only recruits employees who already have security passes. The airline’s planners apparently believe that there is a maximum number of people they think they will hire, so it needs to reduce the frequency now based on the expected level of recruitment.
“He is adjusting to inform as much as possible before it becomes inevitable that they have to cancel these flights anyway. It responds to concerns expressed by their customers and government ministers about the lack of consumer information. “
BA alone canceled about 300 flights over the Easter weekend, causing serious logistical problems and ruining the holidays for many. The airline said most passengers had been notified in a week or two of the canceled flight.
Julia Simpson, chief executive of the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) and a former government adviser, said recovery from a pandemic after months of grounded personnel and planes was complicated by delays in security breaches.
“When you recover, there will inevitably be a break. The most important thing, however, is to inform customers in advance. “As long as you have enough time and alternatives, if they tell you that your flight has been canceled, that’s manageable,” she said.
An Oxford Economics report for the WTTC predicts that international travel could return to pre-pandemic levels by next year.
After global travel and tourism GDP fell 50.4% during the pandemic from $ 9.6 trillion (£ 7.4 trillion) to $ 4.8 trillion (£ 3.7 trillion), it rose 21.7% to $ 5.8 trillion last year and is expected to increase to $ 8.3 trillion by the end of this year and back to $ 9.6 trillion next year.
Global employment in industry is expected to follow suit, growing by 5.8% annually to 324 million workers worldwide in 2023, slightly less than the 333 million in 2019 before the pandemic.
Add Comment