Are Airports and Airlines Short-Staffed?

In a number of recent incidents, a lack of ground staff caused significant delays for passengers eager to deplane and collect their luggage.

The last thing flyers want after a long flight is a long wait to get off a plane. When airlines and airports lack enough employees to help with disembarkation, though, passengers have no choice but to remain in their seats. Recently, a series of incidents raised the question of whether staff shortages are a growing problem.

Take the case of two British Airways flights from over the weekend. After touching down at London Gatwick Airport (LGW), both planes sat on the tarmac for nearly an hour before passengers were allowed to deplane, according to The Argus. Nic Pierce, a passenger on one of the flights, asked on Facebook: “How many times can you say your bags get off the plane before you do?”

Officials at LGW blamed the delays on Swissport, a company that supplies ground staff to guide planes to designated terminals, provide steps and shuttles for passengers, and handle baggage. “We are working closely with Swissport to address any issues,” a spokesman for LGW said.

This wasn’t the first time that LGW pointed a finger at Swissport. Last month, the airport brought in 45 of its own workers to manage luggage after claiming that Swissport failed to meet its responsibilities. Hundreds of travelers had waited for up to five hours to collect their bags, according to the Daily Mail.

The problem of staff shortages also seems to plague flyers on the other side of the Atlantic. After enduring a 4-hour delay before takeoff from John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), passengers on board Delta Air Lines Flight 2931 had to wait on the tarmac at Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT) for an additional hour before they were allowed to deplane, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

It remains unknown why the flight, which was operated by Endeavor Air, was listed as canceled after it took off from JFK at 12:40 a.m. EDT on August 22. Nevertheless, by the time it landed at PIT — at about 2:30 a.m. (according to a passenger) or 3:13 a.m. (according to the airline) — all of Delta’s workers had gone home.

JoAnn Jenny, a PIT spokeswoman, said that the airport learned of the plane’s presence at gate D82 from a member of the cleaning staff at 3:07 a.m. It wasn’t until 3:30 a.m. that all passengers were finally deplaned. It took their luggage an additional 20 minutes to reach the carousel.

In a statement, Delta said that it “regrets the inconvenience to customers for the weather and air traffic control delays … Delta is looking into what may have caused erroneous cancellation information that prompted a deplaning delay after the flight arrived in Pittsburgh.”

Many passengers were perplexed after turning on their cell phones upon touching down at PIT and discovering messages that the flight they were on had been cancelled. One flyer, Eric Schaffer, said he received another notification informing him that he had been rebooked on a later flight.

“I travel a lot. I understand that you can have delays because of weather. I understand you can have delays because of equipment issues,” Schaffer said. “But this is the first time I was ever on a flight that got lost.”

[Photo: iStock]