Terminal operations
Above: New technology promises to upgrade the passenger experience with virtual queuing and self-service security.
Opening page:
Digitalisation could play a key role in getting airports back up and running post-pandemic.
for passengers as check-in desks go unmanned and baggage carousels sit empty. Even worse, not having enough staff can create genuine security worries, exacerbating delays even as queues worsen. Not that the situation is hopeless, with new technology promising much and already delivering. Between virtual queuing and self-service security, executives believe digitalisation can revolutionise the airport experience for customers, even as they shave rota sheets and place leftover workers more efficiently. Naturally, not even the most ambitious airport executive can expect these changes to just happen. On the contrary, any change requires careful planning, a close relationship with passengers and the flexibility to make tweaks once a reform has started. That’s shadowed, moreover, by improving pay and conditions for whoever remains. Get it right, though, and airports could have the chance to finally drag customer service back to a tolerable standard – and boost their finances at the same time.
6,000
The shortfall in 2021 recruitments targets faced by the US Transportation Security
Administration.
Transportation Security Administration
14
Having a staff At this point, it’s hardly novel to state that global aviation has had a difficult few years. With the industry suffering a 60% slump in bookings over 2020, passenger numbers aren’t expected to fully recover until 2024. But if lounges and airside bars were ominously quiet, staff rooms have suffered too. That’s clear across a bewildering range of departments – in the US, the Transportation Security Administration faced a 6,000-person shortfall in recruitment targets in 2021, while Manchester Airport found itself so short of baggage handlers that a flight to Madrid left without any bags at all.
Other airports, for their part, have found it hard to fill hospitality jobs. After reopening post-2020, for instance, Phoenix Sky Harbor found it hard to staff terminal shops and restaurants. “This created the challenge of quickly re-opening concessions at a time when workers across many industries had made changes in their own lives and decided not to return to
their pre-pandemic jobs,” explains Gregory Roybal, one of the airport’s public information officers. “That impact was felt in all service areas, especially with the food and retail vendors.”
In part, these shortfalls are obviously down to the pandemic itself. With previously stable jobs vanishing, airports have found it hard to rehire staff now that demand is returning. But as Roybal’s comments imply, the industry’s current staffing woes are down to more than just Covid. One reason is passengers themselves. Aviation in general may still be clambering out from the trough of 2020, but if you think of an airport like Heathrow, which lately saw a 406% jump in visitors, and you can soon see how operators might struggle. Ask union leaders, for their part, and they’ll point to the low wages faced by many airport workers. At Dallas Fort Worth International, some employees made as little as $2 an hour, plus tips, before the pandemic. While that has now risen to $8 an hour, it’s hardly the kind of wage that keeps anyone loyal. Beyond the why, at any rate, the how of these shortages are equally stark. In part, that can be seen in the chaotic scenes that recently afflicted airports – something Ulla Lettijeff admits has also impacted operations in her own work. “During some exceptional peak hours,” says Lettijeff, a director at Finavia, which operates Helsinki Airport, “staff shortages have unfortunately led to queues longer than normal for passengers at the security control, as well as longer waiting times with luggage handling.” And beyond the carnage spotted by journalists, there are other, deeper problems at play. Some insiders, including Airports Council International, worry about the security risks here, as harried managers rush to hire staff without the proper checks. Then there’s the impact a lack of personnel can have on corporate bottom lines. Gatwick and Heathrow are just two of the giants to slap a limit on the number of passengers who can travel through their terminals – with airlines like British Airways forced to cancel flights and foot the resulting loss of earnings.
Future Airport /
www.futureairport.com
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