Originally Posted by
El Bunto
Of course it makes sense. If you can't or won't scale to handle demand in the peak season then the demand shifts to somewhere that can, like the big aerodrome 100 miles down the road.
It makes sense to spend money to make money. It doesn't make sense to hold money and lose money as a result. This applies to any service-based enterprise.
Afraid not, businesses, at least in the airport... will adjust staff numbers per day / shift / seasonal / sickness* (talking about long term, or at least some notice given), but no business will over staff on paper just to cover potential sick calls for good weather, and that is what we are talking about. Managers / Supervisors etc will ask staff if they can come in on a day off to help etc.. but people have lives, have plans.. and need days off.. so when it comes to short notice sick calls, there isn't much that can be done to adjust start times / days on short notice.. I believe it is 24 hrs notice for start time changes.
The CAA has changed the goal posts A LOT in the last 6 months, with the new procedures that MUST be followed, it does slow everything down, there was a visit just 2 weeks ago, which yet again, added more workload and required more staff.. 20-30 staff have left in the last few months, some long term.. and they can't replace and get someone up to speed in a week....out of the 50 that they advertised, they will probably lose 10 in the first month due to pay / shifts / workload. At the minute, they are in second place for staff turnover at the airport, Swissport being first.
I don't work at the airport anymore, but I pass through BHD / BFS multiple times per month, and I have seen the change in what the staff are expected to do.. add it all in with a busy weekend and no doubt, i would put an estimate on up to 20% of passengers did not follow the basic rules before walking through the metal detector / allowing items to go through x-ray... it was going to happen.. now hopefully they can sit down and work it out and have the staff in place before end of June.
You can't compare BFS to DUB... DUB has far more traffic, bound by different regulations for security (these may be more or less strict, i don't know), better technology and flow, no doubt the security contract is more lucrative and means they can have more staff etc