The ongoing short-staffing crisis at various airports in Europe has been well reported by Simple Flying over recent months. However, airlines are now desperate to find a way to avoid the chaos. To that end, one such attempt comes from Icelandair, which has been sending baggage handlers as additional crew members on all flights to Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport (AMS), one of the worst affected by staffing problems.
Adding baggage handlers to the crew
The Icelandic carrier has devised a clever solution for a problem that looks like it isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. According to Iceland’s national news agency Ríkisútvarpið (RÚV), the airline has been sending two baggage handlers as part of the flight crew on all Amsterdam-bound services since last weekend.
Ásdís Ýr Pétursdóttir, Icelandair’s information officer told RÚV,
“We have also been sending people ourselves out to smooth over the bag problems that have come up. Since last Friday, we have added two bag handlers to our crew to Amsterdam to speed things up and keep planes on time.”
Indeed, Icelandair has been ferrying baggage handlers on all its flights to AMS on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The carrier has also decided to continue doing so on all flights to AMS throughout this week.
Icelandair has two daily services to Amsterdam Schiphol Airport from its hub at Keflavík International Airport (KEF) near the capital city of Reykjavík. Flights FI 500 and FI 506 take off from KEF at 0740 and 1105 hours, respectively. The former is operated using the Boeing 767, while flight 506 uses the much more modern Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft.
Another option
While Iceland decided to fly its own baggage handlers, other airlines took a different approach. As Simple Flying reported a couple of weeks ago, some airlines have decided to ditch Schiphol Airport altogether and move their operations to smaller Dutch airports nearby. As the disruptions got increasingly severe with each passing day, more airlines followed suit and took their business elsewhere. This action came after the airport’s management capped the maximum number of passengers during the summer period.
Unlike these airlines, Icelandair’s solution stands out as it allows the carrier to continue its operations smoothly. But how long can the carrier keep this up?
Ásdís says,
“We will have to see how it develops and whether we carry this on, and even maybe to other destinations. As I say, we are trying to find ways to reduce the effects of these delays and minimise disruption to the journeys of our passengers.”
For now, Icelandair will continue flying its own baggage handlers to Amsterdam for at least this week. The airline said it would reassess the situation at the end of the week and take an appropriate decision for the future. In the meantime, Icelandair is encouraging passengers to arrive at airports early and be prepared for delays in all baggage-related activities.
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What do you think about Icelandair’s solution to the staffing problem at Schiphol Airport? Please, let us know your thoughts in the comments.
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