Even though the COVID-19 travel restrictions have already been lifted in the majority of European Union states, travellers continue facing other inconveniences at European airports.
Travellers across Europe are facing chaos as some airports are already dealing with staff shortages, long queues, and other problems, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
France, Spain, and Italy are just some of the most popular EU destinations that are struggling.
France is mainly facing staff shortages. This has caused the airports in the capital to report long queues of travellers taking long-haul flights.
Apart from dealing with staff shortages, airports in Paris scheduled a strike last week, which contributed to the worsening of the situation.
Similarly, airports in Spain have been facing difficulties too. Due to long queues at passport control, Iberia said that around 15,000 passengers had missed their flight connections since March.
It is expected that the number of those who will miss their flight connections during the upcoming summer months will be even higher as the travel demand continues to increase each day now that the travel rules have been relaxed.
Spain expects to receive a high number of arrivals this year. The country’s authorities revealed earlier this month that the seats scheduled by airlines to fly to Spain from June until August had surpassed 32.4 million. This means that the country will register a recovery of 94 per cent compared to the same period in 2019.
Even though Italy is not expected to face serious disruptions, the country reported delayed and cancelled flights last week. This was caused by a strike held by air traffic controllers.
Right now, it seems that the Italian airports have everything under control. However, if there are other strikes or staff shortages, travellers should be prepared for long queues.
Germany is also struggling as the country registered increased demand for travel along with staff shortages. Passengers are already reporting long waits at Germany’s airports.
Staff shortages across Europe have pushed airlines to cancel hundreds of flights until now, and the number is expected to increase even more.
Several airlines, such as Lufthansa, Ryanair, and Air France, have announced that they had to cancel hundreds of flights due to this exact problem.
Air France had to cancel a total of 85 flights in one day due to a strike that was held at Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport.
Since the airports had to cancel a high number of flights, they have been subject to profound financial losses.
