Airports, Airplanes & Airlines

The Issues of Current Travels

Everyone reading this has probably either experienced the cruel reality of traveling in 2022 and 2023 firsthand or heard about it from someone. Travelers who choose flying as their mode of transportation nowadays have to deal with delays, canceled flights, big crowds of other passengers, gigantic queues to the security check, lost luggage, and expensive tickets. Although it might seem that way, it is not like all these circumstances arose overnight. Similar situations indeed have happened before, just not with such magnitude.

Travel in 2022 was heavily problematized and ranked as the worst in history. Some issues were generated by natural causes like heatwaves, floodings, or extreme snow and cold temperatures. But that is just a small part of the whole issue. The first non-weather-related problems were spotted last year in June in many European countries. For Eindhoven Airport, it was specifically during the third weekend of this month. A huge number of passengers got stuck in a 3-hour-long queue for a security check and ultimately did not make it to their flight despite the plane purposely delaying its take-off to give travelers more time to pass the security. Soon after that, both Schiphol and Eind hoven Airport started advising their passengers to arrive 3 or even 4 hours before their flights to have enough time to get to their gates. Both airports even put a shelter outside the entrance so that big crowds of travelers did not have to stand in the rain waiting in line to even get inside the airport.

However, it is not just about the increased number of passengers, but also about the heavily understaffed airports. Because of Covid-19, when almost nobody was traveling for 2 years, airports had to lay off a lot of employees to make ends meet. Although airports were aware of the problem and tried hiring more workers, they did not offer better working conditions and expected employees to receive the same poor treatment as before the Covid-19 pandemic. This was met with many people not accepting these terms and giving up on the job.

Last summer’s extreme ratio of airport employees versus travelers resulted in very poor service. The staff shortages, mainly in security, led to long queues and made a lot of people miss their flights or have their flight delayed and even lose luggage as there were not enough workers to take it out of the plane and distribute it to the passengers at baggage claim. All this inconvenience led to Schiphol as well as Eindhoven Airport, which used to be in the top 15 airports in the world, being ranked respectively as 8th and 3rd worst airports. This new ranking was based on not the whole summer, but just July of 2022.

As airports all across Europe were heavily struggling, some airports like London Heathrow started asking airlines to stop selling tickets for the summer as a way to ease the chaos and take more control over the situation. This was quite successful, but it did not happen without disruptions and some travelers were affected by their flights being moved to another day, another airport, or being canceled alto gether.

Nowadays, the situation is a bit better, although occasional delays and long queues still occur. Furthermore, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 made oil, gas, and jet fuel prices skyrocket, not to mention inflation. This, in turn, influenced ticket prices which have been getting higher and higher, especially for cheap airlines and in the high-demand seasons. Not only are the tickets getting more expensive, but so is luggage. This counts for both checked-in luggage as well as a part of the priority package which enables a passenger to bring a second luggage item onboard. As it turns out, it is currently cheaper to pay for a checked-in 10kg luggage instead of priority which has always been the best deal for people who like to travel often and lightly packed.

As summer is quickly approaching, everyone who wants to spend it in another country needs to deal with an added layer of advanced planning and extra steps. However, it is not about wearing a facemask on the plane and social distance anymore. Particularly important is looking at investing in travel insurance for yourself and the family or friends you want to travel with. Now it is more necessary than ever to have travel insurance that covers any hotel cancellation and flight interruptions in case things change, especially in case something is stated as non-refundable. Travel is definitely different at the moment, but by being informed and prepared you can still enjoy your summer