Portugal Has Already Hit Peak of Flight Cancellations
The executive president of TAP, the Portuguese Airlines, has announced that flight cancellations at Portuguese airports have already peaked, AtoZSerwisPlus.pt reports.
“When we look at our scheduled flights and all the factors at play we see that we have reached the peak already, we don’t need to wait for August, because our peak started in July and the same happened to all airlines due to the rules of the slots,” TAP CEO, Christine Ourmières-Widener said.
She also noted that TAP was working for the peak to become stable by the winter season, as the country is facing a fast recovery. Lisbon is recovering faster compared to the other airports, although in the last two weeks, many improvements have been noticed.
Such a situation represents a problem because there is a lack of personnel and spare planes, despite the adjustments made at the airport, which included the recruitment of more cabin staff.
Asked by the reporters at Sao Paulo about a new airport in Lisbon, the manager said that the airline would welcome the decision.
“I have only been in Portugal for a year, the history of the airport started before me, the only thing we think is that we need a vision for TAP, and any decision will be welcome for us,” Ourmières-Widener pointed out.
Data from Cirium shows that Europe is the most affected area by flight cancellations, as the European airlines face staff shortages and other issues related to flights. Airlines in the world have cancelled more than 25,000 flights from their flight schedules for August – 60 per cent of those being in Europe.
As of July 14, a total of 15,788 flights across Europe that were scheduled to be operated in August have been cancelled – representing only two per cent of the entire flight schedule for next month.
Cirium data further shows that the most cancellations of flights for August have been made by Turkish Airlines – with 4,408 take-offs being cancelled last week alone.
British Airways follows the list with 3,600 cancelled flights while easyJet with 2,045 cancelled flights. In addition, Lufthansa with 1,888 cancelled flights and Wizz Air with 1,256 cancelled flights conclude the list of top five airlines with the most cancelled flights.
