Europe is in a state of travel chaos and travelers, which has prompted travelers in European countries to pay more for air tickets as their chances of reaching their desired destination are dwindling.
A statement released by the network Bloomberg Economy: Chaos spreads from London to Amsterdam to Berlin. Chaotic scenes at airports, checkpoints, security staff and baggage handlers are recurring. While the travel industry in Asia is still dealing with the coronavirus and the US is facing a shortage of pilots, data on ticket prices and cancellations shows Europe is in the midst of chaos, which has caused a lot of inconvenience and disruption for consumers.
Cancellation
Europe had twice as many cancellations as the US between April and June last year, according to data from flight tracking company RadarBox.com. The number of canceled flights in June from Germany, the UK, France, Italy and Spain rose to 7,870, more than triple the number recorded during the same period in 2019, according to aviation consultancy Sirium. .
On the other hand, according to data from Kayak.com, the price of a flight from London to Alicante in Spain this week was more than triple the value recorded in the same week last year; Flight prices from Paris to New York are three times what they were in March 2019.
Staff crisis
The decline highlights how a faster-than-expected recovery in aviation after layoffs during the pandemic has hit major staff shortages. Instead of a major comeback, the global airline industry is faltering, unable to resume operations quickly enough to recover from the worst travel slump ever, turning ordinary routine flights into epic flights.
Confusion is compounded by strikes across the continent; Rampant inflation leads to demands for higher wages.
France’s civil aviation authority ordered flights from Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris to be reduced on Thursday as firefighters withdrew. Ryanair cabin crew in Spain, Portugal and Belgium staged a three-day strike last weekend, later joined by colleagues in France and Italy. More industrial strikes will occur as the continent enters the peak holiday season.
Deutsche Lufthansa AG CEO Carsten Spohr has warned that things won’t return to normal until the end of the year, but the risk is that the disruption undermines the recovery by curbing bookings.
Shay Weiss, CEO of Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd., which canceled only a handful of flights, warned airlines and airports not to pressure families and companies to ask them if they want to travel.
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