Hunger travel again after more than two years lock the door and hide authorization arguments yielded a completely predictable result: Many airports and airlines were unprepared for a spike in traffic and everything could get much worse this summer.
Spring break 2022 is an opportunity to see if air travel can scale to meet one of the biggest demands since the Covid crisis began. It’s an industry test mostly failwith challenges aggravated by bad weather and thousands of flight cancellations. Stories about leaflets give up their rental cars to catch flights amid endless lines and pilot problems (so to speak) and sleeping in the airport is becoming too popular.
Even with higher inflation flight price increase caused by increasing fuel costs and other factors, airports are expected to be packed this summer, at least if no major Covid variant wreaks havoc on travel plans. What can you do to avoid chaos, or at least understand the elements at play? We spoke to several air travel experts about this situation and their tips for navigating it.
What causes these bangs at US airports?
Multiple factors behind airport delays related to Covid-19: Demand has increased as travel restrictions have been lifted and some coronavirus numbers have subsided. Gasoline prices are also high take kibosh on long road trips for some. And more people stuck at the airport due to flight cancellations or delays caused by technical problems (such as Southwest of the system shut down in early April) or low personnel.
Daniel Findleydeputy director at Transport Education and Research Institute in North Carolina, says industry layoffs have created a lean system that leaves little room for error, especially when the weather comes in.
“For example, you see that on the pilot side, and the crew, the air traffic control, the supply chain and the materials. When one thing breaks, you know, is there another pilot and crew that can come in when some critical engine part needs to be replaced? ” Findley said, “What’s the cascading effect when in the morning the crew isn’t where they need to be and there’s no backup crew? Now you’ve missed a whole day of flights and departures. connecting there.”
Major resignations and other factors can also contribute to canceled flights, delays at security routes and staffing problems, Findley said. “There are other things, namely, like retiring pilots, but it is mainly related to Covid and the labor market in general.”
Findley said another big change that could last into the summer is that lingering fears of Covid, Covid-related foreign travel restrictions and high flight prices are keeping many Americans out of travel. international travel and stay in the United States, contributing to overcrowding at domestic airports.
“Whether they go to the beaches in the area or the national parks, that has affected our domestic market, possibly in ways that we didn’t expect,” he said.
How long will this last?
Staff cuts at airlines and airports, and among government security personnel for air travel, never happendmost due to a sharp drop in demand for flights in 2020 and 2021 as Americans stay home. There is no telling how long it will take for employees to back up, say William Rankin, a professor of airport management at the Florida Institute of Technology. The last time we saw this situation was after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
“When 9/11 happened, of course we shut down the entire system for a few days. Overall, it’s been three to four weeks (outage), but then it’s probably six to nine months to get the equipment back on before we’re at full capacity, staff wise,” Rankin said. He said he “can’t even begin to speculate” how long that might take after Covid.
