Civilian air traffic in Europe was again very unpunctual last year, according to a survey.
Despite a thinned-out flight schedule, 244 million passengers were affected by delays and last-minute cancellations, according to data analysis by the passenger rights portal Airhelp.
Out of a total of 795 million passengers carried, this corresponds to just under 31%.
By comparison, in the last year before the coronavirus crisis in 2019, the proportion was only 24%, with 1.125 billion guests.
"The summer in particular showed that airports and airlines were not prepared in terms of staffing for the increase in air travel following the pandemic," Airhelp chief Tomasz Pawliszyn said.
According to the study, up to 40% of passengers had to deal with flight problems during the summer months. Other causes of delays were strikes and unfavourable weather.
There is no improvement in sight for 2023, Pawliszyn said: "We expect this negative trend to continue this year. As in many other industries, the shortage of skilled workers continues to be a serious problem hampering flight operations. Added to this are staff strikes, which cause additional delays."
According to Airhelp, the Netherlands was the country with the most delays at 37%, followed by Britain and Germany together, where 36% of passengers experienced delays.
With 43% of affected passengers, Frankfurt was the third most unpunctual airport in Europe behind Corfu and Manchester.
Flights that took off more than 15 minutes behind schedule were rated as unpunctual. Connections that were cancelled in the week before the scheduled take-off were considered cancellations.
