The whole flight situation?

[ThreeonaHill]

Is it "only" affecting UK airlines and the big holiday destinations or is it more wide spread?

For a variety of complex and heartbreaking reasons, it currently feels very important to do something important for my teen son and I booked 3 days for he and I in Iceland in August. Icelandair. He's wanted to go for years and the fact that he can still be excited about something is huge for us atm. Now I'm worried it's just going to bring more stress into our lives 😥

It looks as if UK airlines laid off more staff than others and the consequences have taken three toll. New staff need to be security cleared, cabin crew need to participate in the required training and putting an aircraft back into service after being mothballed for so long, does not happen in an instant. BA, for example are leasing aircraft, complete with all crew from other airlines.

I'm afraid it is just a case of seeing how the situation evolves.

www.euronews.com/travel/2022/05/25/long-queues-remain-at-schiphol-airport-after-hellish-weekend-for-travellers

www.theguardian.com/business/2022/may/03/airline-workers-stranded-staff-shortages-us

Lots of finger pointing going on, it's alleged by some that the Uk industry perhaps didn't receive as much support as was the case in other countries and so the effect hasn't been as bad elsewhere.

Hopefully it'll recover but might take until late summer.

Government blames the airlines, airlines blame the government. The fact is there was a complete lack of support for aviation by the government during the height of the pandemic, and the airlines took opportunities to cut costs and staff with glee and ran with it. Both government and airlines are to blame, but the issue is that many airport staff and crew worked throughout the pandemic in critical roles, ensuring repatriation and freight flights still continued to operate, and did so in much more difficult and stressful situations than usual while also enduring pay cuts. Morale is low, numbers of staff are much reduced and airlines and government are still being confrontational about things. They need to get more people into jobs, fix some very grave organisational problems and improve morale before things will get better. And being in the industry, I can see that if things don’t start getting better soon, they will get worse.

Did the airlines not get furlough payments ?

Our flight from Italy was delayed by three hours as in the incoming flight was coming from Manchester, It was the only flight in the airport that was. I think it very much depends on which airport in the UK the flight is from. And despite three hour delays ( both ways actually) we still had a great time. The Italian airport was incredible, through security in 5 minutes, no queues, clean and food. I won't even start on Manchester...

I have been to eight international airports around the world since January, yes it is wide spread and chaos with long queues almost everywhere. We did not have a normal experience anywhere at all except Stockholm - which was incredibly orderly and calm - but then they did not bother with lockdowns so maybe they don't have the same issues as the rest of us. Male was the worst.

Op, I would think Iceland will be fine. It is not a huge hub or long haul. As long as you take money, snacks, extra meds if you need them and go there in a good frame of mind open to change, a sense of humour and be prepared for some waiting then you will be fine. We made games up with our teens who could guess the time we would get through security etc.

Take lunch with you for the flight and let your son enjoy his longed for trip. The travel is only a very small part of a much bigger experience.

Also you are travelling in August, plenty of time for these problems to be ironed out.

Airlines did get furlough payments but they have been impacted for far longer than other organisations - ie a route we fly on regularly used to have three British Airways flights a day, most days, now it has just one.

It’s ridiculous. Quite glad that we can’t afford to go anywhere this year!

really feel for everyone caught up in it.

Italy today however today would be an issue as Itlaian airtraffic controllers are on strike causing huge delays.

It is happening everywhere.

I know it's hard OP but try not to worry about it when it is completely out of your control. It sounds like you have enough going on. Could you think of a back up plan that you can book last minute if your flights did get cancelled? However I will add that we have just been away and flew with Vueling and had the most positive experience we've ever had. Flew through both of the airports and both flights had no delays, got to our destinations earlier than stated in fact

I have recently been to Denmark. Going out, it took 20 minutes to get through to departures at Heathrow (not fast track, just the ordinary queue). I had checked in online but had to collect a boarding pass from a self-service machine at the airport so the 20 minutes includes that.

Coming back, the security queue was about an hour, and the passport queue about half an hour, at Copenhagen.

The problems are not confined to the UK.

Daughter just arrived in Italy 🇮🇹 n an easyJet flight from a london airport this morning. No problems at all so clearly not a problem for everyone everywhere

It's definitely not just the UK, there was a news story about KLM cancelling a large number of flights just a few days ago but there's no way to predict and nothing you can do to make a difference so I'd book and keep my fingers crossed if it was important to go somewhere.

There's big queues most mornings at Schiphol at the moment and plenty of people missing flights when we flew through there the other day. Our taxi driver said they're struggling to get baggage handlers for the €12.50/hr they're paying.

Afternoon flights seem to be better when leaving the UK and as far as I know Icelandair haven't had any problems. Was looking to book a trip in the summer as DS missed out on his school trip there during the first lockdown.

It’s not just the airlines - there’s a huge amount that’s out of their control - the ground airport staff, traffic control, refuellers, caterers, baggage handlers etc - if they aren’t all available the plane can’t fly

In my recent experience it helps if you can:

a) avoid the low-cost airlines
b) don’t check in any hold baggage
c) fast track through security if possible
d) avoid flying Friday evenings or weekend mornings

These aren’t guarantees but they seem to have helped me. I’ve taken four flights in the last three weeks and not had any major problems (although I’ve also seen some poor people having a hellish time, mostly at London airports).

Brexit has meant a shortage of workers in the UK. It's fine the other ends

I flew back from the Canary Islands on Sunday. We had a 4 hour delay going and a 5 hour delay coming back.

However, on the departures board many flights were delayed, not just UK ones. The airport we were in was running normally passenger and security wise so the problems must be a knock on effect of widely delayed flights.

Brexit has meant a shortage of workers in the UK. It's fine the other ends

If only! sadly this post is simply untrue and false. Dubai makes Heathrow look like a zen health farm, and the last time I checked Dubai did not have their own version of 'brexit'!!!! Most international airports have been in a deep freeze for years and are struggling (very badly) in some cases to get back up to speed.

No catering on a seven hour flight wasn't fun.

It looks like it will last into the summer, so I wouldn’t get his hopes up too much.

ATM there's a danger of looking at some parts of the MSM and thinking all airports in the UK and many elsewhere are in utter meltdown.

As others have mentioned upthread that's not the case.

Some operators/airports/terminals within had problems over the last week or so, some didn't.

Also from what I've heard there's also been a element of sensationalism.

Writing "on Saturday Scruggs air cancelled 100 flights" sounds 😳

Pointing out maybe 90 of those had been taken off schedule weeks ago, passengers rebooked or give refunds with plenty notice, and that actually only 10 were cancelled on the day maybe doesn't create the impression the author wants to make.