When will airports / flying get back to normal?

[Helpyou]

I love travel, I really do. I used to fly about twice a year short haul.

But the stress of my most recent trip is enough to put me off for a lifetime. I feel for everyone with cancelled trips, cancelled visits to family / weddings / hens / stags etc... delays with children, delays hungover, not knowing if you'll make it home in time for work. It's a shambles. The staff on board are feeling the pressure too. When is it going to get back to normal?

(Before anyone says, I know there are bigger worries in the world but the 2 aren't mutually exclusive and right now I'm just wondering about the travel industry and whether these big airlines will even survive!)

I’ve flown every 6 weeks for the past year/ year and a half and haven’t experienced any cancellations, delays or mad airports.
It’s just a popular story atm.

I do think a lot of the cancellations are to do with the price of fuel rather than lack of staff. Lots of people booked their holidays at 2019 prices to travel in 2020 and are only going now. The price of fuel has gone up loads. Its probably cheaper to cancel and refund everyone than it is to fly the plane.

I flew this week and while security was busy it was well organised, the biggest issue was half the eating places airside were closed so there were massive queues everywhere and the shops were running out of stuff. I flew in 2020 and it was obviously much nicer then with a lot less people!

So many people thought don't seem to think about what they can and can't take in hand luggage, the liquids rule is what 16 years old now and it still takes people by surprise. If everyone followed that, and had all their stuff ready, and didn't wear gigantic trainers that need to be taken off and scanned then security would be so much quicker.

Doubt things will improve until we rejoin the single market which will likely be in the parliament after next so late 2020's or early 2030's I expect.

Until then it will be a slow decline in terms of living standards, constant shortages of staff, food and other things we used to not give a second thought about.

@Southwest12

I do think a lot of the cancellations are to do with the price of fuel rather than lack of staff.

Really don't think it's that TBH. Most airlines hedge on fuel months plus ahead so todays' crude prices may not reflect what the companies are paying ATM, especially if they hedged around the turn of the year.

In any event yes crude prices are high ATM but we've been into this sort of territory before and it didn't lead to mass cancellations.

From what I'm hearing this really is down to staff shortages, now exactly where and who is responsible is a whole other ongoing argument.

I have flown a few times. People messing around trying to find their boarding passes and blocking the scanner, wondering where their passport or mobile has gone. I know it’s stressful but please don’t block the entrance to anything while you have a good old chit chat to your partner.

We were due to fly next weekend, our flights have been cancelled, luckily we’re going to Disney so we can drive instead.

A friend flew to the states from Manchester on Wednesday, it took him over six hours to clear security so he missed his flight.

I flew long haul through Gatwick last month and it was all completely fine, and flew out of Heathrow short haul this morning, again totally fine in the airport and on board.

I think some airports and airlines have been disproportionately affected by staff shortages but my experiences in the last few weeks have been completely positive

Not until they can hire the staff. I think the era of cheap flights is over, which environmentally is probably a good thing. Airlines will have to pay more to attract staff and that cost will have to be passed on to customers.

I flew from Bristol, which has been badly affected, in the Easter holidays and it was absolutely fine despite there being Tui flights leaving every 10 minutes or so. There was one delayed flight. What's changed so much?

The summer schedule starts on May 1st so there are at least triple the amount of flights that there were in April. Airlines recruit for the summer season but as PP says, starting salaries are low and references are taking ages to come back delaying new crew/airline staff from getting their I.D passes.

Stay away from the big airports. We flew last Saturday from a tiny local airport, just 12 flights a day going out, but covers most of Europe. It was a dream, least stressful journey ever. Will definitely use that airport more in future.

I'm guessing that flights up until may not have been full and therefore run at a loss, which was not sustainable. Recruitment may have been slowed. Op, depends how you define "normal". Plenty of vacant shop units and food outlets still in terminals. Even if they were let it takes time to recruit managers and staff, especially for less social shifts, and plan for stock. LGW had plans for a second runway and more night flights which I suspect may not go ahead, not necessarily a bad thing.

I’m in Stansted right now. It is RAMMED. People sitting on the floor everywhere as all the seats are taken. Huge queues for the restaurants & pubs. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it this busy, even pre-pandemic. Many problems in travel are to do with staff shortages. But there is evidently huge demand too.

Heathrow LAX and back last week and no different to pre-Covid at all really

People not listening/reading what to do at security made it a bit slow but no change there!

Still going to allow extra time for the next few flights I have booked just to be safe and staying overnight for a 9am one

I agree re the increase in flight costs. We want cheap everything and supposedly want staff to be paid properly but those two things don’t together. You only have to see people moaning about Ryanair and luggage costs and claiming they are ripping you off yet their flights are full.

Or even boasting about getting a return ticket for say £30 and smugly telling everyone. It’s not sustainable.

I did a return trip to Spain 2 weeks ago and it was fine, walked straight through passport control both ways (Malaga). Perfectly normal IME.

2 weeks who was not half term. This week has been a bottle neck. However DD had no issues from Gatwick to France. Coming back could be troublesome though.

Prices have been too low but that doesn’t affect airport staff. The airports will have to charge more to users and pay staff more. Customers will have to pay. Overselling does matter. Again though, companies need to be certain staffing is there. The industry won’t recover until it is.

We had one of the smoothest flight experiences ever this Easter - no queues, no delays, nothing. So I think it very much depends on the airline and airport you’re flying with at the moment.

If everyone followed that, and had all their stuff ready, and didn't wear gigantic trainers that need to be taken off and scanned then security would be so much quicker.

This too. I guess a lot of people haven't flown in 2-3 years and they might have forgotten all the rules. But please, do take ten minutes to read through the website and don't show up at the airport with sharp objects in your suitcase, hair straighteners at the bottom of your bad, 1l tubs of gel and a million make up miniatures that don't fit in the small clear bag. Sort it all out before you join the queue and be quick, instead of faffing about and then shouting at staff when your trays need an extra check which delays everybody an extra 30 minutes.

When we reverse Brexit?

Yep, the one delay I did have on the 23rd April was a woman (girl? Maybe late teens) who had clearly either forgotten how to fly or didn't read any signs. She was refusing to take her jacket off and had full size hairspray, heat protector, foundation etc. All of it binned.

It was 'normal' when we travelled a couple of weeks ago. Filling the staffing gap left after the effect of covid restrictions on the industry will take time. If anyone is looking for a job there are plenty going at airports!

Me too. I think it's being way over hyped by the media

Wow you're cheery!

I'm really thinking by spring next year at the latest. There's a chance things will step up a bit over winter as cases go up but I am really hoping an expecting that we should be able to go away easily as it warms up again. I cba with all the hassle of airports and testing atm so we haven't been away in years when we used to go every couple of months.