Welcome to this new edition of Airport: The Bulletin.

The headline take-out from our preliminary passenger traffic data for March is a welcome one. March was the best traffic month we have seen for two years. Welcome respite for airports on their knees through two years of destroyed income, and proof positive that the pent-up demand for travel is very real indeed.

Read on though, before the champagne corks pop. Whilst the month of March is balm, Q1 2022 actually fell below Q4 2021 (at -39% and -37% respectively when compared to 2019). A reminder if any were needed of the ongoing fragility of our recovery.

With yet a further twist, our airport members are looking to a bullish summer ahead with relief of course that our terminals will once again hum with activity and anticipation… but also with some degree of trepidation. Why? We’re all newly returned from our Regional Airports’ Conference in Palermo with one main message having emerged above all others: a staffing crisis. Yes, the restart and recovery is suddenly both bullish and fragile at the same time. How to re-resource your depleted workforce when faced with these conditions – and the externalities involved largely beyond our control?

We know that the summer peak will be operationally challenging. We saw the issues over the Easter weekend – from national broadsheets to the ‘citizen journalists’ on their travels, a picture of a holiday queue at the airport is seemingly irresistible. And there were plenty. Healthy summer bookings mean this was just the rehearsal, and it’s a worry for our airports as staffing shortages across the aviation eco-system – including airlines, ground handlers, Air Navigation Service Providers and police/border control – take their toll on capacity and on the quality of the customer experience.

There are a number of factors at play here, including the lead times involved in national security clearances for new staff. When you’re looking at up to 16 weeks for a security green light, well – do the math as they say. Restaff to meet a surge in demand now, and get your teams in place come Autumn. Not much help when tackling a summer peak.

So we’re all gearing up now for a rollercoaster ride in the coming weeks. It’s not just aviation of course; for every picture of an airport queue there’s another of Eurostar’s struggles and yet another of motorway tailbacks at border crossings. We do worry about the quality of the passenger experience as we tackle these issues.

Yet above all else, on a purely human level, the relief to be connecting again is profound. As Niall MacCarthy puts it on our Five Minute Feature this month, we now know beyond any doubt that none of us want a society without the freedom and the ability to travel. The restart may be fraught with uncertainties and challenges.  But it will be worth it.

Olivier Jankovec
Director General of ACI EUROPE