Alterations for some, chaos for others: summer was stirring in the European sky. The strong recovery in traffic combined with airport staff shortages and strikes have led to major disruptions that have resulted in passenger congestion, delayed or canceled flights, thousands of lost bags and thus the anger of passengers. passengers.
According to a study* by AirHelp (a platform for air passenger rights), French travelers have been particularly affected by these problems. From May to August, 20 million French flew and 38% of them had to deal with delays or cancellations.
This is 10 points more than in 2019, when the number of departing passengers was much higher (28 million). It is also 3 points higher than the European average.
Almost one in two passengers in Roissy is affected by a delay or cancellation
First European airport in number of passengers this summer (8.3 million), Paris-Charles de Gaulle has obviously not escaped these malfunctions. The lack of staff, mainly in the security area, caused delays or cancellations for 45% of vacationers. Almost one in two so…
By way of comparison, passengers at the English Heathrow airport, which saw almost the same number of passengers (8.2 million), only 40% suffered schedule inconveniences.
Further back, Nice, Europe’s 29th busiest airport this summer, welcomed just under 2 million travellers, but 46% of them saw their flights disrupted.
Toulouse Blagnac, ranked 49th in the ranking, recorded 1 million travelers with 31% interruption.
Compensation
As a result, 665,000 travelers would be eligible for compensation of up to €600 under regulation EC26 (cancellation or delay of more than 3 hours due to airline), AirHelp recalls, compared to just 121,000 during the same period in 2019.
According to the European organization Eurocontrol, delays in departures from airports on the Old Continent increased by 5.4% during the last week of August compared to the same period in 2019.
On average, 38.7% of flights were delayed by at least 15 minutes on departure and 31.4% by more than 15 minutes on arrival.
In reality, departures on time vary from 34 to 83% depending on the airports audited. The most punctual are found in northern Europe: Oslo (83%), Helsinki (83%) and Stockholm (78%). The most numerous delays were observed in Lisbon (42% of flights on time), London-Gatwick (42%) and Tel Aviv (34%).
Paris airports, meanwhile, show a punctuality of 70% in Orly and 60% in Roissy.
*: AirHelp combines data from airline operations at airports to feed FIDS (flight information displays), ADS-B transponders (beacons that transmit aircraft to the ground), airport radar terminals (referred to as ASDE data – Surface Detection Equipment of the airport), MVT messages in IATA format transmitted by the aircraft on airline and airport networks, ACARS is transmitted to airports and other travel industry partners through SITA and ARINC networks, air traffic control systems such as EuroControl and FAA/DOT.
Source: BFM TV
