Originally Posted by Jenbel
Yep - but saying something is under-resourced, and actually doing something about it are two different things as well - and I'm sure that's something many have experienced in our working careers!
Staff resourcing at this airport had to be approved at board level - way above the level of the operational budget-holder, and using safety as a case was not particularly successful at that particular airport. In addition, staff for this area could only be recruited from another airport department, not direct in from outside (for reasons too long to explain), and the other airport department is also customer facing, so removing staff from there impacts on passengers again (which from this thread is a no-no). Once recruited over from that department, IIRC there was a 6 week lead-in for training and bureaucracy to be dealt with. So what do you do in the 3 months minimum you have to wait while the increased staff are getting into place, presuming your board approves the request for additional staffing? Trollies or safety? And what do you do if your board refuses to increase staffing levels?
It sounds like nothing but a case of bad management. It's not a case of what to do in the 3 month period whilst they recruit a bloke to push trollies - it's a case of not getting into the situation they did in the first place.
As a pax I expect an airport to be 'safe' and to 'work'. I rely on the supervision of the various authorities to deal with the former (because it's an area way outside my expertise), and I'll decide how they are doing on the latter myself (because I'm well able to spot a queue at security, and can also time that it takes an hour for my bag to hit the belt on landing).
Looking around the more developed bits of Europe I can't imagine that HEL, CPH, MUC have major safety problems. And they work.
When I get to LHR the travelator is knackered. Yes, LHR has all the problems of having to squeeze a quart into a pint pot, but if BAA can overcome these difficulties so as to have gleaming and modern shops they can surely get the travelator fixed.