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Comment by cycomanic | Hacker News Reader

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.

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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?

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?

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.

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.

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