Manchester Airport’s new boss has warned he cannot promise passengers a “great” experience this summer.
Chief Executive Chris Woodroofe told BBC News improvements have been made and he expects the “vast majority” of passengers will have an adequate experience.
Most will “get through security in 30 minutes, get on their plane and fly away,” he said. But he admitted: “There will be instances where that doesn’t happen and I’m sorry in advance. It’s a terrible thing because we want everyone to get going.”
Manchester and Gatwick airports told the BBC they have been working hard behind the scenes to ensure the summer runs smoothly after challenges hit international travel restarts.
However, they cannot promise that things will be perfect or return to a “normal” 2019 level of service.
The airlines report that most passengers made their journey without any problems.
But long queues, delays and cancellations have been frustrating thousands of would-be vacationers since before Easter. The sector is under pressure to improve its performance amid concerns of more disruption in the summer.
After two years of fluctuating Covid restrictions and eerily quiet check-in halls, we have a busy few months ahead of us.
Manchester will see 50,000 passengers depart daily at what the boss is calling a “super peak” – close to 2019 levels.
Staff shortages have been blamed for much of the recent disruption.
Critics accuse companies of cutting too many jobs during Covid. Two years later and a very tight labor market means many are now finding these workers extremely difficult to replace.
Although airlines Ryanair and Jet2 claim they started recruiting early enough and were not hit by staff shortages.
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“The airline industry has been decimated during Covid and is now facing a tremendous effort to rebuild,” Mr Woodroofe said. “These are airports, airlines, ground handlers, border guards. All of these organizations have the biggest recruitment efforts they’ve ever had to go through. The reality is we are still recruiting.”
In Terminal 1, BBC News watched some of Manchester’s newest recruits learn the basics.
It has taken some three months to begin their new roles due to the background checks, security clearances and training required.
Recruitment is also a key focus at Gatwick. Although the airport had laid off almost half its staff during the pandemic – when the South Terminal was closed – management insisted they were kept on to cope with a significant increase.
Security guard Rupesh was among those sacked in 2020 – but he returned in March. “It took me a few months to get my airside [pass] renewed,” he said. But he was happy to be back and “see some old faces”.
“The challenge we face is that customers are waiting a little longer than they normally should – but that’s due to our staff and the number of lanes in operation.”
Gatwick security chief Cyrus Dana said hundreds of new colleagues had already been recruited and that efforts would continue through October. Recruitment for next year has already begun.
“There will be very rare instances where you can queue outside [the] Departure [area]. But I can encourage people to consider that the queue will dissipate very quickly,” he said, with the majority having to wait no more than 10 minutes.
However, security staff alone cannot guarantee passengers a carefree journey. Aviation is a complex ecosystem, and staffing shortages are affecting other areas as well.
Airport staff, for example, make up just a tenth of the workforce in Manchester, with the rest employed by airlines, ground handlers or border guards.
Last month Gatwick Airport capped the number of summer flights. Similarly, Heathrow Airport limits the number of passengers that can depart over the top each day.
Gatwick Airport Chief Commercial Officer Jonathan Pollard said staffing was a big part of his reasoning: “The last minute ‘on the day’ cancellations … a lot of it was caused either by airline crew shortages or by some of these main suppliers – like ground handlers who look after the flights – don’t have enough staff.”
He said he took preventive measures before July and August to ensure these did not continue or increase, although he acknowledged it still meant disappointment for some people whose holidays had been canceled as a result.
The government also allowed airlines to return their flight times, which British Airways used to reduce its August-October schedule.
Garry Wilson, managing director of EasyJet Holidays, said although the airline had canceled some flights, more than 70% of those passengers had now been rebooked.
Asked if EasyJet could guarantee there would be no further cancellations, he said: “We have done everything in our power to ensure the system is resilient.
“Other things can happen now – like delays in air traffic control or airport infrastructure.”
He added that if that were the case, the airline would ensure that “in the event of disruptions to normal flight operations, we have that much information [as possible] that we can pass on to the customers.”
He dismissed the suggestion that EasyJet had not prepared for the summer. “No, I think with the information we had at the time we took all the necessary steps. Once we knew the system was being stressed, we built that resilience by taking flights.”
Mr Wilson said EasyJet now has enough staff.
After the race for new employees and many thousands of cancellations, are the airports now ready to enable people to travel abroad for a long time?
At Gatwick, Mr Pollard is cautious, saying despite their enormous planning efforts: “There will be periods over the summer when things may not feel quite as normal as they once did.”
But that the experience “for a passenger at Gatwick will be significantly better than it could have been,” he added.
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