Page 12 - STAT August 2022 for Magzter

specialreport

A difficult summer in Europe more than 1,000 colleagues. Nevertheless,
Trouble began brewing at European recruitment will continue, as we still need
airports in the first quarter of the year as several hundred new employees due to the
aviation saw a rebound and cargo volumes special challenges we face. However, the
began limping back to pre-pandemic levels. entire industry is also currently feeling rising
Cancellations began to hurt both the sickness rates due to high workloads and
civil aviation and cargo operations as Coronavirus. Together with our partners, we
belly capacity diminished further. As per are doing everything we can to be able to
Seabury, close to 65% of cargo capac- handle cargo as smoothly as possible (at the
ity from mainland Europe and the UK is moment on average 5,000 tonnes of cargo
owing to belly space in passenger aircraft. Our partners have per day) and give our passengers a good
Airfreight is currently 51% of the total trans- start to their vacations.”
atlantic trade value. been in a continuous Meanwhile, in Britain, Heathrow airport
Reduction or caps on flights, delays, has been staring at strike action from
cancellations, and rerouting dominated the state of hiring, employees at British Airways (BA) owing to
headlines across Europe. onboarding, training, pay issues. However, IAG Cargo, the cargo
In the first week of July, both pas- arm of BA’s parent company - International
senger and freighter airlines cancelled but I would say well Airlines Group (IAG) has said that BA’s recent
flights to and from Frankfurt Airport as it over 100 staff were decision, made earlier this month to cancel
announced that “cargo traffic can also be more than 10,000 short-haul flights be-
affected by disruptions, longer wait times hired in the last tween August and the end of October out
and flight cancellations” owing to “traffic of the UK is not likely to impact the cargo
peaks”. Frankfurt Airport operator Fraport year alone. operations. Later in June, however IAG
recently announced that it maybe looking Mammen Tharakan Cargo announced its "biggest ever recruit-
to apply to the German transport ministry Edmonton International Airport ment drive", with 500 roles available.
for a reduction in the number of flights Staff strikes for pay and working condi-
per hour from 96 to 88. airlines like the German carrier Lufthansa tions also managed to destabilise opera-
Heathrow Airport in London announced Cargo, earlier this month. tions at the Paris Charles de Gaulle airport,
a cap on the number of daily departures of Owing to strikes, Lufthansa Group and which subsequently witnessed flight
passengers numbers to 100,000 from July subsidiary EuroWings cut 3000 flights from cancellations and schedule changes in June.
12 to October 29. its Frankfurt and Munich hubs, owing to Incidentally, Air France-KLM was forced to
Similarly, Gatwick Airport announced staff crunch and short-notice sick calls from cancel 85 flights in one day due to a strike
that it would have a cap of 825 flights per the crew. Lufthansa Cargo has recently at Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport, and about
day for July and 850 in August. reported an easing in the situation at its three times that number due to snags at
Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport had an- Frankfurt hub but it is still slated to continue Schiphol airport in this period.
nounced that it is limiting the departing to divert some freighters to Munich for July. Scandinavian carrier SAS AB, which is look-
flights in July and August and also wrote Frankfurt, which is among the busiest ing at putting in place a $3 billion restruc-
to airlines to cancel flights to avoid delays cargo hub in Europe, had in fact asked turing plan, also reportedly faces possible
and overcrowding. Further, the reduced cargo airlines to reduce flying in a bid to pilots strike. Almost 1,000 pilots in Denmark,
availability of freighters because of the manage staff shortage. A Fraport spokes- Norway and Sweden are also reportedly
Russia-Ukraine war, China’s Covid-led restric- person told the publication, “The measures planning a ‘walk-off’ this month, after they
tions, softer consumer demand, and labour taken by Fraport and passenger and cargo failed to reach a new collective labour agree-
constraints have also hit operations at the airlines are helping to stabilise opera- ment with the airline. Aviato, which is Brussels
Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. Dutch airline tions. However, special situations such Airport’s job centre, is launching a recruit-
KLM had also stopped moving cargo on as shifts in rotation, severe weather ment drive to fill more than 1000 jobs at
some flights to Schiphol in a bid to relieve conditions, or congested airspace can Brussels Airport.
pressure on its ground handlers. have a negative impact on operations.
Meanwhile, embargos on certain non- Thanks to extensive recruiting meas-
priority cargo were announced by some ures, we have already been able to hire

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