Don’t relive the chaos of the summer of 2022. Faced with a massive recovery in air traffic, airports and airlines were clearly baffled a year ago by the influx of passengers.
Queues that lengthen outside airports, endless waits at security controls, endless delays, hundreds of lost suitcases… The players in the sector have paid a high price for the lack of personnel, in part, due to the covid pandemic. which has caused employee departures (between 2019 and 2021, the branch’s workforce went from 89,400 to 79,000).
Since then, the sector has promised to correct the situation, mainly by recruiting en masse, particularly in the field of security, where the shortage of personnel is greatest.
A sector in battle order before the summer rush
As the 2023 summer vacation quickly approaches, what is the situation? “The quality of the service is a permanent attention, especially after the operational tensions of the summer of 2022,” acknowledges Pascal de Izaguirre, president of the FNAM (National Federation of Aviation and its trades).
The manager first highlights the upcoming signing of a Service Quality Charter signed with the Ministry of Transport to engrave in stone the commitments of the players. “It’s everyone’s business,” he underlines, also thinking about the big sporting events that are coming up (the Rugby World Cup this fall and the Olympic Games next year).
A call received and accepted by Clément Beaune, Delegate Minister for Transport: “The summer season is going well, which creates additional challenges because the summer will be busy.”
It is indeed the tendons of war. In June 2022, the number of people to hire (excluding police personnel) was estimated at 4,500 to guarantee a good quality of service.
Just before summer, there are still significant needs
The sector has organized itself, in particular by communicating with young people, mobilizing Pôle Emploi, while the ADP group (Paris Airports) has launched an online recruitment platform.
At the same time, the sector has sought to remove the brakes on hiring by raising wages, improving working conditions, and seeking to implement a single collective agreement.
This resulted in the signing of 9 sectoral agreements, including several salary agreements to take into account the revaluation of the minimum wage.
Efforts that pay off? The FNAM or even ADP are quite stingy with numbers, which does not encourage optimism. The proof? Last April, ADP organized a conference dedicated to recruitment at the Cité des Métiers Charles-de-Gaulle. Goal: Find another 1,300 people, suggesting that the shortage is still significant.
In Lyon, on April 27, a special employment forum was organized for the Saint-Exupéry airport with 200 permanent and fixed-term contracts. Here again, we can deduce that needs are still important.
More policemen and “border guards”
Another major problem is the number of police officers at the airport border posts. The lack of PAF officials regularly causes endless waiting times at departures and arrivals, as recently as this week in Roissy. Which deeply irritates the passengers.
“The State must mobilize to reduce these waiting times,” demands Pascal de Izaguirre. Indeed, contracting in this field does not depend on airport managers, but on the Border Police Department and therefore the Ministry of the Interior. It must be said that Place Beauveau has long been reluctant to deploy additional staff to airports.
Methods have been sped up, particularly with the “border guard” post working alongside the police. 365 such positions are open. This employee is not a public official and does not pass a competition, but benefits from a 15-day training course. “Border guard work is a first step into the world of law enforcement and could serve as a springboard to integrate the national police,” says the central director of the PAF.
A first promotion of 26 agents is operational in Roissy
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the PAF also plans to recruit 255 agents additional screening contractors for Paris airports by June and 500 by the end of 2024.
“Other contracted agents will be able to complete this template throughout the summer, which will significantly increase the number of checkpoints open simultaneously and therefore improve waiting times,” says ADP.
For the entire country, the PAF wants to hire a total of 1,200 people for the summer of 2024, a figure confirmed by the Delegate Minister of Transport.
Goals accomplished for a quiet summer? “It is still difficult to say if all the hiring will be completed for this summer”, answers Clément Beaune who also advances other measures to avoid traffic jams.
Finally, the sector wants to protect itself from repeated strikes by air traffic controllers that, according to him, caused the loss of 400,000 passengers this year at Paris airports. A bill has been presented in the Senate “for greater predictability of the impact of these strikes on passengers and airlines,” says Pascal de Izaguirre. For vacationers, there is only hope that these efforts will pay off.
Source: BFM TV
