Airport Chaos: A Case of Piss-Poor Management and Unintended Consequences.

 Well, it looks like the Airport chaos is due to continue. I know of two families that have had holidays cancelled by TUI. By text. When they were at the airport waiting to check in. 

Then there's the cancellations by EasyJet and others.

I checked FlightRadar this morning and the sky was chock full of aircraft. The corridors South from the UK were nose to tail. I suspect there will be other cancellations this weekend.

The latest is the chaos at Manchester Airport: baggage handlers ending their shift on time leaving aircraft stranded on the runway. Either waiting to take off with baggage not loaded, or waiting to offload baggage after landing.

Airport management cite the lack of staff and the difficulty in recruiting staff. And that is a factor. But in my opinion it's the airport management themselves that have created the conditions for chaos. 

This could all be avoided with decent management. But unfortunately it appears the quality of management at airports isn't the best.

Basically airports around the country have eradicated staff parking along with short-term parking for passengers for drop-off and pick-up in an attempt to reduce congestion. Instead of providing subsidised parking, they are now providing subsidised buses into the airport. But the problem is that the subsidised transport is not flexible. They are contracted to pick up staff and transport them to and from the airport at allotted times. There is no flexibility. If staff work overtime, they miss the transport home. If they had a car, then working an extra hour wouldn't be a problem: they'd work the overtime, then hop in the car and get home an hour late. 

I mean, why would airport management pay for (say) an hourly bus service available 24/7 when for 3 -4 hours that bus service isn't used? 

If your shift ends at midnight for instance, then there's no alternative transport: you're stuck at the airport until the public transport intended to serve passengers starts to run. Most airports don't serve passengers 24 hours a day, there is usually a lull between midnight and 5 or 6 in the morning. So instead of being an hour late, you're not getting home until 7 or 8. That extra hour or even 30 minutes can have a huge knock-on effect for the workers at the bottom of the food chain. You've missed out on all that sleep, plus the rest of that day is virtually written off. If you have plans then they're out the window. 

Now of course if there was adequate compensation that registered the hardship that working an extra half hour causes, then fair enough. But I bet there isn't. 

It's almost like the management that came up with that strategy cannot comprehend that staff don't want to work under those circumstances. Of course management being office workers I'm sure work office hours that can use public transport, or work at an office block away from the airport with parking. No hardship for the people making these stupid decisions.

As I said, piss-poor management is to blame. They bring in strategies blissfully unaware or maliciously uncaring of the consequences of their decisions. 

Oh, and one thing that has not caused it is Covid. That ship of an excuse has sailed. It's been several months since lockdowns and travel restrictions were eased and things started to get back to normal. Plenty of time to recruit the numbers needed and train them up. But of course the management says that no-one is taking the jobs. 

Maybe the airport management need to look in the mirror at the reason why workers are not applying for the jobs they are offering.

In my opinion airport management are really the root cause of the issues.