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At 5:30 a.m. on a weekend morning, the flight information board at Heathrow Airport was still displaying flight schedules as usual. A few hours later, Europe's largest airport began to fill with people. Thousands jostled and pushed their way to the ticket counters or baggage claim areas.
By early afternoon, many travelers who had lost their belongings were unable to contact the lost and found center, which had closed without explanation. According to Flight Aware, on that same day, airlines canceled all 23 flights, representing 2% of all flights to and from Heathrow Airport. Nearly a third of scheduled flights were delayed. On the same day in the summer of 2019, cancellations affected 0.5% of flights and approximately 23% were delayed.
This is a common sight at international airports this summer. Travelers flock to the airport, eager to board a plane for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic, only to be disappointed by hours of exhausting waiting.
Post-pandemic workforce crisis
Many international airlines and airports are struggling to hire staff to meet the current massive demand. On July 13, Heathrow, one of the world's busiest international airports, announced it would limit the number of passengers moving through its terminals and asked airlines to stop selling tickets departing from the airport for the remainder of the summer.
"In just a few weeks, we've seen the quality of service decline to an unacceptable level," said John Holland-Kaye, CEO of Heathrow Airport.
Airports urged passengers not to arrive too early for their flights, as this would exacerbate service congestion. But just minutes later, at 5 a.m. on July 5th, a London Express train arrived and the airport was packed with people. On the information board, only one of the 1,184 flights displayed the previously announced operating times.
Long lines of people formed at Heathrow Airport.
Forty-five minutes later, the airport loudspeaker announced that one of the first Turkish Airlines flights to Istanbul had been cancelled. By 9 a.m., the number of delayed flights had reached 21. Lines of people were everywhere.
"This is the new normal. Customs queues sometimes stretch all the way to the check-in area and even the entrance," said an airport employee.
Carla Leone, a 20-year-old student preparing to return home to San Francisco, was waiting in line to check in. She had been in Copenhagen the day before, when pilots of Scandinavia's largest airline, SAS, went on strike. SAS later announced it would cut its daily flights by 50% due to the strike.
"People are taking pictures of the crowds," Leone said of Copenhagen. "We can't tell where the stream starts or ends."
Terrible service
Airports blamed the staff shortage for the chaos. Many European airlines began rehiring staff they had laid off during the pandemic later than their US counterparts. The European tourism industry is unique; most travelers cross borders, resulting in high demand for entry. Furthermore, European countries have inconsistent COVID-19 regulations, making immediate recruitment of tourism personnel impossible.
Austrian Air has stated that it is facing a staff shortage, resulting in longer service times and increasingly long queues for passengers. The airline announced that it has hired an additional 200 employees to prepare for this year's summer travel season.
Heathrow Airport is always overloaded due to a shortage of staff.
Heathrow Airport also ramped up recruitment in November 2021, aiming to have the same number of security personnel as before the pandemic by the end of July. However, many staff members lacked adequate training, and shortcomings, particularly in ground operations, remained a significant concern.
By 11 a.m., the number of delayed flights at Heathrow had risen to 52. In the baggage claim area, luggage was piled haphazardly near the conveyor belts and on the floor. Passengers said the baggage backlog was the worst they had ever seen.
Heathrow is not alone; airports in Toronto, Paris, and many other major airports worldwide are facing similar situations. Swissport International Ltd., an airline services and baggage handling company, is currently handling approximately 17,000 requests from various airlines on its own.
Before Covid-19, the company employed 65,000 people. By the end of December, the number had dropped to 45,000, according to a spokesperson. Currently, the airline is urgently recruiting with a $5,000 paycheck at several US airports.
Baggage congestion
Meanwhile, Victoria Hammersten was waiting to speak with staff at the Heathrow lost and found counter in Terminal 2 at 1 p.m. However, the staff closed the office without explanation.
The 23-year-old woman had missed her flight from Oslo to London the day before due to delays at check-in and security. Hammersten tried to board another flight later that day, but her luggage was missing. She gave up hope of getting help from staff after waiting for four hours, until 5 pm.
Heathrow was severely affected by baggage chaos. The facility experienced a conveyor belt malfunction in June, forcing hundreds of bags to be stored in waiting areas outside the passenger pick-up zone. The conveyor belt was repaired, but the incident left many passengers unable to retrieve their luggage for weeks.
Among them were Siebe Schoneveld, 23, and his girlfriend Milena Rendon, 22. They were at Heathrow trying to find answers about suitcases that went missing three weeks earlier, when Rendon had traveled from Mexico to Germany. She then flew to London, where the airline had pledged to return the lost bags.
Passengers' luggage is not processed.
The couple called the airline every day, but had no luck. “I’ve lost all faith,” Schoneveld said. Meanwhile, Ttiana Chapire, 44, was traveling from London to San Francisco with her two young sons. Her flight was delayed by two hours due to what was reported as a staffing issue.
“We see (flight delays) everywhere,” Chapire said. Last month, her family also had to wait seven hours to board a flight to Portugal.
Delays and cancellations at Heathrow begin to increase after 2 PM, and lines for check-in, baggage drop-off, and security grow longer.
British Airways canceled 16 flights to and from the airport that day – part of a reduction plan the airline agreed to implement to help ease congestion at the airport. Eurowings also canceled a return flight between London and Hamburg, as a crew member experienced a health problem and there was no replacement available.
Rick Delaney, 51, a Canadian, was at Heathrow Airport preparing to travel to Italy with a group of other families. The 11-day trip was originally planned for March 2020. Now, the group has missed two days in Venice and one day in Florence due to canceled flights and missed connecting flights.
They had stayed awake for 30 hours trying to find their way to Italy. “Honestly, I don’t know where we’re going tonight,” he shared. “If I could go home right now, I think I’d accept that option.”
