Tourism has taken another hit from the aviation sector, with Germany's flag carrier Lufthansa saying that in July, which is in high demand for travel, will cancel nearly 1,000 flights. After the coronavirus pandemic, the airline has a big unresolved problem – “staff shortage”.
A Lufthansa spokesperson told Insider that the carrier has already canceled about 900 domestic and short-haul European flights that were originally scheduled to take off from hubs in Frankfurt and Munich in July. The flights that were canceled were scheduled flights on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. A Lufthansa spokesman noted that canceled flights account for about 5% of the airline's average weekend schedule. The spokesperson also said that Lufthansa's budget airline Eurowings, which specializes in tourism, has also been forced to cancel several flights and withdraw them from the system in order to stabilize service in July.
Despite the increased demand for travel, the source noted that the infrastructure has not yet been fully restored and at the same time said that not only the flagship of Germany, but the entire aviation sector in Europe is experiencing the problem of staff shortages. “The entire aviation industry, especially in Europe, is currently suffering from bottlenecks and staff shortages. This applies to airports, ground handling services, air traffic control, and airlines,” a Lufthansa spokesperson told Insider.
With the exception of the German carrier, several other airlines have also struggled as they can't balance headcount with more tourists who miss air travel. However, a strike by some 80,000 protesters resulted in the cancellation of all outbound flights from Brussels. In this regard, the airport was forced to cancel flights: most of the security staff joined the strike. Their demand was higher wages as rising inflation hit purchasing power.
Last Monday, a total of 232 scheduled flights were cancelled. With a large number of people unable to fly on Monday, the airport warned that an increase in passenger numbers is expected on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Although there is a severe “staff shortage”, there are other problems that airports face, International Association air transport (IATA) predicts a reduction in sector losses in 2022. According to her assessment, the losses of the aviation sector should be significantly reduced compared to the covid 2020 and 2021.
According to IATA, the number of passengers who will fly before the end of this year will reach 83% of the pre-pandemic level . However, it was stressed that the challenge for 2022 is to keep costs under control. Passenger traffic is expected to generate more than 473 billion euros in revenue for the sector, twice as much as in 2021.
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