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Comment by user_7832 | Hacker News Reader

Earlier it was Schiphol, now Heathrow... I wonder why there's such an issue with airports.

Of course the direct answer is "inadequate staff" but the next question is why is that so much more now? Why aren't the airports doing more to entice workers like perhaps better benefits, pay or flexibility? Are airports already operating at thin margins? (If anyone from the aero industry could comment that would be great!) Did they overestimate the downturn due to covid? Are traffic volumes legitimately larger than what was expected/predicted in 2022 (even ignoring covid's drop)?

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What I heard (and there is a lot on conjecture involved) is that lots of staff were layed off or put on part time during covid. Now travel levels are coming up to precovid times and much previous staff has moved on. On the other hand, the airports are not really offering significantly increased salaries. In general it seems that there is strong reluctance to adjust salaries for workers despite the increased demand.

Seems like we're seeing this pattern across the board in the economy: shortages of labor, and salaries aren't increasing enough to lure people in. Are employers unable to raise salaries, or are they unwilling? If they are unable, where does this leave us if no one can afford the price of labor? If they are unwilling, is this just a game of chicken to see who blinks first between employees and employers?

I suspect the airports have limited ability to pass along the increased cost to the airlines.

I think part of what we are seeing is the beginning of a large number of Baby Boomers retiring, causing worker shortages across the economy.

This kind of work is not done a lot by boomers. Especially the luggage work is way too heavy.

Also take into account many people got laid off/furloughed/etc... during the Pandemic, and have since found a new, probably better job. Why go back to making a pittance for a stressful, heavy workload?

Ah, but we are still "during covid", though people are traveling again, meaning that the number of pilots and staff who are out sick is significantly higher than pre-covid times. That's a major factor causing flight cancellations in the US, not sure abut Europe.

> Of course the direct answer is "inadequate staff" but the next question is why is that so much more now?

Simple: here in Germany, all workers at airports authorized to enter controlled zones have to pass an extensive background check, a process that takes 3-4 months under normal conditions [1]. During COVID, a lot of these workers were laid off instead of being placed under the employment protection program or left entirely since the Kurzarbeit only paid out 60% of already extremely low wages (14€/h for baggage handlers, [0]). They found other employment and won't come back - to make it worse, airports are usually well outside the city borders, so there's an awful lot of commute involved at a time when public transport doesn't run as well.

> Why aren't the airports doing more to entice workers like perhaps better benefits, pay or flexibility?

There has been a continuous pressure on costs everywhere at airports, which means the airports themselves have not much flexibility on raising fees to account for increased costs, and the companies providing the services like baggage handling, refueling and whatever usually won their contracts by tender which means they are locked in as well by law.

[0] https://de.talent.com/salary?job=flughafen

[1] https://www.luftsicherheitsschulung-online.de/faq-beantragun...

> There has been a continuous pressure on costs everywhere at airports, which means the airports themselves have not much flexibility on raising fees to account for increased costs, and the companies providing the services like baggage handling, refueling and whatever usually won their contracts by tender which means they are locked in as well by law.

Our governments (that all signed the Paris agreement) should be happy and seize the opportunity to let airports raise taxes, let service providers renegotiate and pay their staff more, and make low cost flights a little less cheap.

> let service providers renegotiate and pay their staff more

That is impossible, they cannot raise the agreed-upon rates without terminating the contract and holding a fully new tender process. Contract termination would require agreement of both parties, but no vendor would ever agree to the termination of a contract if they could not be sure to win the new tender.

> Wie viel verdient man als Flughafen in Deutschland?

This literally means "how much do you earn as an airport in Germany". The answer is 2194€. Made me laugh.

> an extensive background check, a process that takes 3-4 months under normal conditions

Makes me wonder how many minutes of actual investigation take place in those months.

Seems like there was serious opportunity for process improvement all along that was never done, and now things went from bad to worse.

The checks are extensive - almost every relevant database the government has on you [1]. They can also oder medical exams to check if you've been using drugs if they find any indication of any usage in the past in the data. It's absurd, utterly absurd.

[1] https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/luftsig/__7.html

The job roles involved (security staff, baggage handlers, cabin crew) often have poor pay and undesirable working arrangements (e.g. unsociable hours).

The current high level of employment means people are able to choose to not do that kind of undesirable work.

When Airports and Airlines do manage to find staff to fill the jobs, they have to go through a government background check process for security reasons. That process has a huge backlog at the moment.

Covid meant that they got rid of people

When travel picked back up they tried to employ people. They failed because

1) Brexit -- many people who were laid off in the UK returned to their country of origin

2) Security clearance -- there is a massive backlog getting security clearance (for things like airside passes) in the UK

BA ground crew were recently on strike because they're being paid less than they were in 2019 for the same job (which was already a low wage), even before inflation. There's better jobs to go to with better hours and better conditions.

I suspect BA and co are hoping to get some form of P&O style deal where they can employ people who aren't UK citizens in the airports on a low wage that someone with full access to the labour market wouldn't take.

Aside from the issues that others have mentioned (Brexit, security clearances), the UK is in the middle of a huge BA.5 Covid wave. Estimates are something around 1 in 25 people had it last week, and it's getting worse. That's driving a lot of staff absences.

You realize there's a worldwide pandemic going on that's causing people to be sick for days and weeks at a time, repeatedly, right? And that nearly all airports and airlines have given up the most basic mitigations like mask wearing mandates to prevent spread.

I flew out of Schipol yesterday. Everything was fine at the KLM check in counter and gate, and at passport control. But they were short of security screening staff and it took an hour to get through the line.

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