Reflecting on recent news stories, one cannot entirely blame airlines for trying to expedite what must be a horrendous logjam of problems and complaints by angry and frustrated travellers by claiming, “not our fault” and offering little or no compensation to passengers with missed connections, lost luggage and cancelled flights. These are unprecedented circumstances.

Lost baggage is just one of the problems currently facing not just Canadian, but international carriers as well. While the numbers of travellers surges, flight delays and cancellations due to crew or other airline or airport personnel shortages continue to hamper travel recovery.

By the numbers

Airlines, airports and governments are attempting various measures with varying degrees of success. Certainly, at Toronto International, I know from personal experience, matters seem to be much better than previously reported. My recent trip experience had me stepping off the UP Express at Terminal 1, heading through security, and US immigration to a seat at Lynn Crawford’s Harvest Restaurant in 40 minutes – exactly – and that was with a bathroom stop. Four weeks earlier both my departure and arrival were handled quickly and efficiently with no undue delays. I should note that on all occasions I had only carry-on baggage.

Transport Canada’s data for the week of Aug. 01 to 07 showed 97% of flights planned for Canada’s top four airports were not cancelled, compared to 88% over the same period in July and over 85% of flights from the top four airports left on time, or within one hour of their scheduled departure a 10% improvement over the previous month.

Screening time was also down as 88% of passengers at the four largest airports were screened within 15 minutes by the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA), an improvement from 84% the previous week (July 25-31).

That certainly seems an improvement, though anecdotal reports vary – while we continue to hear of delayed and cancelled flights, long waits and missing luggage at Canadian airports, we are also being told of quick and efficient handling both for arrivals and departures..

Different strokes

The problem is not Canada’s alone.

After scores of summer flights into and out of London Heathrow were cancelled in recent months, and passengers reported long waits at security, lost luggage and lengthy flight delays. LHR, one of Europe’s busiest airports, put a maximum cap of 100,000 on departing travellers each day until Oct. 29. The daily cap was initially expected to be lifted on Sept. 11.

Heathrow imposed the temporary limit in July and told airlines to stop selling tickets during the peak summer travel season, saying the expected passenger traffic was more than airport ground staff could handle.

But is this sustainable?

Not just Covid to blame

Canadian Transport Minister Omar Alghabra said recently, that labour shortages caused by the pandemic are primarily contributing to the situation. “Blame it on Covid.”

That reasoning is already wearing thin. And just last week Ottawa pretty well walked that back, admitting they underestimated, “the desire to which everyone wanted to travel, and everyone wanted to travel at the same time.”

Annie Koutrakis, the parliamentary secretary to the minister of transport, told reporters that planning for a return to normal fell a bit short.

“It’s not like we were waiting and not planning behind the scenes to be ready for it. It’s just more could have been done.”

She noted that is the first time the government has gone through a pandemic and there are lessons to be learned.

Let ’em go

Certainly, the pandemic brought the world to a virtual standstill, but the coronavirus also exposed longstanding work issues and remuneration disparities in travel, tourism and hospitality.

It let wealthy corporations accept millions in government handouts while they dumped payroll, fired or furloughed personnel, presumably under the assumption that those personnel would flock back gratefully when the corporation crooked its finger, or that those jobs could be filled by lower paid newbies.

If that was the thinking, in many instances it hasn’t worked quite as they expected.

More travellers. Less workers.

So, as the pandemic fears gradually abated, people became eager to travel and airlines beefed up their schedules to accommodate the burgeoning wanderlust, they reckoned without those fired and furloughed workers who found it infinitely more rewarding and less stressful not having to deal with long hours, difficult passengers and inadequate compensation.

Many found working at home suited them better than facing crowded transit or bumper to bumper highways. Some companies have adapted to this – others haven’t. Certainly, working from home is not a solution for so many travel and tourism employees who need to interact with an increasingly aggressive and belligerent public.

So now what?

For the moment I expect we will see airline schedules trimmed, routes dropped and prices rise. I believe that as restrictions ease or end entirely, consumers will continue to want to travel after their enforced pandemic shut in.

As much as they want that “Bucket List” trip to Nepal, or the Galapagos, or Iceland they may find that (no matter what country they live in) people may also learn that there is beauty and adventure to be had closer to home.

Cruising too is a popular and convenient choice. In many instances you can drive to your port and that makes things infinitely easier – even if it takes a few days rather than a few hours.

Train trips and coach tours are popular for the same reason.

This is not to suggest that air travel is on the way out – obviously it is not – only that as the situation currently exists or the perception of problematical air travel exists, there are other options.

Creative solutions

Clearly there must be a new approach to labour in the sector. The industry needs new ideas and new incentives to attract a new generation of workers – both to skilled and unskilled positions.

One idea we liked is being promoted by Roger Dow recently retired CEO of The U.S. Travel Association. His new venture Future Work Solutions as created an app to connect tourism employers with pre-qualified and vetted employees.

The app will allow workers to post their skills, preferences and availability. Hotels and tourism companies can pitch available jobs to workers, who can then choose when they work and what job best suits them. They are not tied to any single company or shift but may work at different positions, in different companies, and at times that work for them.

“Our future workforce is changing significantly in their attitudes towards work.” Dow told us. Of great importance to millennials and Gen Z generations are flexibility, and the ability to choose “when where and how” they work, their balance of life, etc. This, he said, “will result in a fundamental change on how employers approach work and requires our industry to think differently in order to fill the significant jobs gap.”

This is obviously not an answer to pilot and other specialized job shortages, but it could help elsewhere in the sector. Regardless, it is at least an innovative and creative solution to part of the industry’s problems.

Now we just need some more.