Summer 2024 in Europe has begun with profound discomfort, unparalleled compared to previous years: thousands of canceled flights, significant delays, millions of stranded travelers. The cause? Bad weather, first and foremost, followed by staff shortages. The situation is critical, with airlines, airports, management companies and air traffic controllers accusing each other, contributing to the chaos.
The statistics are sobering: Europe accounted for half of global flight cancellations between June 28 and June 30, according to FlightAware data, with nearly 600 flights canceled and 8,000 significant delays on Friday alone. In the week of June 24-30, planes accumulated 1.9 million minutes of delays, a 153% increase from a year ago. Even on a normally quiet day like Monday, seven out of ten flights departed late from major airports like Amsterdam, Frankfurt and London.
In reality, in addition to bad weather and staff shortages, there is talk of causes attributable to post-Covid, and to problems that have not yet been resolved. For example, the unpredictable planning of the companies and the compressed shifts of the crews are the cause of the high amount of traffic in the airports but above all of the staff shortage. In short, a terrible picture that does not foresee any room for improvement, for the moment. Precisely for this reason, many have decided not to leave for the summer holidays this year.
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2024-07-04 23:37:50
