Heathrow Will Recruit 12,000 For The Summer

Heathrow Airport, the world’s largest airport, has announced plans to recruit 12,000 more employees to cope with a projected summer tourism boom. However, the airport has cautioned that the rebound in the aviation sector is “being eclipsed by war and Covid-19.”

With just 2.8 million passengers last month, Heathrow’s passenger counts fell by almost half compared to pre-pandemic norms – and by 15 percent compared to Heathrow’s own prediction.

“War and economic uncertainty continue to cast a shadow over the aviation industry’s recovery,” said John Holland-Kaye, the chief executive of Heathrow. “However, we must make certain that we are prepared to meet peak potential demand this summer.”

Heathrow Airport anticipates passenger counts to exceed 85 percent of pre-pandemic levels during the peak periods this summer, according to the airport. However, it said that because of increased pre-departure inspections, the airport would seem to be substantially busier than that and that it would need to launch a recruiting drive.

“This is more than the present airline, handler, and airport capacity,” Heathrow said in a statement. Consequently, we are putting customers first by prepping the airport for peak demand, working with airlines to cut check-in queues, adding 12,000 more staff, and restoring terminal 4 by the end of this month.”

Heathrow went on to say that it was “especially worried about Border Force’s capacity to expand up to meet demand” during the peak summer travel season. A combination of problems with the electronic passport gates and new Covid-19 requirements has resulted in huge lines in the immigration halls at times.

Its rival London airport, Gatwick, has similarly projected a summer spike, with passenger numbers expected to rebound to 85 percent of pre-pandemic levels by the end of the summer.

It said earlier this week that it intends to serve about 3 million people per month this summer. It also announced that it would reopen its second terminal at the end of March, when British Airways will resume short-haul flights from the facility.

As a result of testing and quarantine requirements in many foreign markets, Heathrow cautioned that the immediate rebound in incoming tourist numbers would be modest. The aviation sector also faced a number of other challenges, according to Heathrow.

According to the airport, “we also face headwinds from rising fuel costs, lengthier flight durations to places affected by airspace restrictions, fears from US travelers about conflict in Europe, and the possibility of new ‘variants of concern.'” “Taken together, [these factors] produce a great deal of uncertainty about passenger predictions for this year.”

Heathrow had a softer start to the year than expected, owing to the Omicron variant, which dashed hopes of a quick recovery after a year in which passenger numbers fell to 19.4 million, the lowest level in nearly half a century, and the airport reported a pre-tax loss of £1.8bn. The Omicron variant is a low-cost carrier that operates in the European Union.

Heathrow has enraged airlines by announcing plans to increase landing fees by more than 50% as part of an effort to mitigate cumulative losses of £3.8 billion incurred during the epidemic.

According to the airport, the increase in costs to airlines would normally add less than 2 percent to passenger flight tickets, despite the fact that airlines have expressed displeasure with the increase at a hub that they claim is already the most expensive in Europe. Heathrow claims that the increase in fees, which must be authorized by the aviation regulator, the CAA, is required in order to fund critical investment in screening and luggage handling equipment.