Passengers return to not-so-friendly skies

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 12/07/2022 (1362 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It has been anything but blue skies for air travellers this summer.

We’ve all seen the social media videos of checked-luggage purgatories, populated by hundreds of roller bags. We’ve heard the stories about the cancelled flights. The delayed flights. The rebooked, delayed and then ultimately cancelled flights. The endless check-in and security lines. The hours spent on hold with customer service. The hour spent on the tarmac. The missed connections. The passengers who have been separated from their belongings for weeks.

Indeed, the late-pandemic return to air travel has been far more turbulent than triumphant over the past few weeks. Demand has been surging, with many people taking their first summer vacations in three years, and an industry rocked to its foundations during the depths of the pandemic isn’t just struggling to keep up; it appears to be collapsing under the weight.

Canadian airlines and airports topped the global leaderboard for delays over the July long weekend, which included both a Canadian and U.S. holiday. On June 30, Air Canada president and CEO Michael Rousseau sent an email to customers alerting them to the fact the flag carrier would be making “meaningful reductions” to its schedule in July and August.

That amounts to about 154 flights per day, with flights to and from Toronto and Montreal being among the most affected. Both cities are popular connections to domestic and international destinations.

And as much as passengers are frustrated by delays and cancellations, we should also spare a thought for airline workers.

The aviation industry is grappling with worldwide staffing issues and crew shortages, both in the air and on the ground. This is partially owing to the aggressive cuts airlines made in 2020 when air travel was all but suspended, and now they are struggling with recruitment and retention.

Many workers who were laid off have found jobs in other industries, and those who remain find themselves doing more work with fewer resources. Advocates are already warning of more turbulence on the horizon, in the form of strikes and work actions as many employees report being overworked and underpaid.

Gate agents, customer service reps and flight attendants are on the frontlines of this crisis, having to endure angry tirades from irritated passengers about things over which they have little to no control. How long before even more aviation-sector employees decide it’s not worth it and leave the field for more stable — and less stressful — jobs?

It’s a complicated, multi-system failure with no silver-bullet solution, and airlines will have to step up at both the employee and customer level, and better manage passengers’ expectations. “Meaningful reductions” in service, for example, should have happened months ago; at this point, what could have been a proactive move is now a reactive one.

It might also be worthwhile to explore the things that could be done right now to streamline the system and alleviate some of the security bottlenecks, such as getting rid of the cumbersome ArriveCan app, which has, by now, outlived its usefulness in the face of changing requirements and mandates.

Passengers will adapt, as they have before; flying, after all, has never returned to what it was pre-9/11. Rebuilding the industry will be slow, so it’s best one packs their patience if they are planning to fly.

To borrow a word from Mr. Rousseau, without “meaningful” strategies to tackle what is, chiefly, a labour issue, this will be the new normal for air travel for the foreseeable future.

» Winnipeg Free Press