I am no fan of Swissport but there are several reasons behind the issues at Stansted at the moment.
Jet 2 went fully self-handling this year and EasyJet changed handling agents to Stobart earlier in the year. I understand that there is an Exclusivity clause in the Stobart contract meaning Stobart cannot handle anyone else for a period of time. The loss of the EasyJet contract caused Menzies to pull out leaving Swissport as sole handler for the remaining business. Swissport don’t want to be sole handler as this leaves them in the position of not being able to refuse handling even if they don’t have the resource. With the Jet2, EasyJet and Ryanair contracts all locked up there is not enough business to reach the critical mass another handling agent would need to start working at Stansted.
The failure of Air Berlin and Monarch has left a gap in the market and as a result everyone has piled in to fill the gap and there is more traffic in the European Skies than ever before leading to ATC delays. Add to this, strikes in France and Spain and Weather in Germany and the ATC delays are the worst in a number of years resulting in a lot of off schedule flights.
The final reason is that even though Ryanair are off schedule and Swissport are struggling they are still filing slots for 25 minute turns and when they miss the slot are being thrown to the back of the queue and picking up a further delay exacerbating the problem for the next rotations. All this comes to a head after midnight when Swissport are supposed to have limited traffic.
So …..
It’s the “fault” of MAG for letting a Sole supplier situation occur at the fourth (or is it third) busiest airport in the UK.
It’s the “fault” of French and Spanish for striking
It’s the fault of climate change for increased thunderstorm activity in Europe.
It’s the fault of Ryanair for trying to not managing the slots well on off schedule movements.
It’s the fault of Swissport for not resourcing correctly for the above which is also driven by the wage rates which in turn is driven by their revenue which in turn is driven by the low cost nature of Stansted.
I imagine that it will be resolved in the next year or so because….
The number of flights will decrease as the losers in battle for the AB/MON space exit the market reducing the ATC issues.
Swissport demand higher pricing allowing them to increase pay and the Stobart exclusivity clause will expire.
So the end result is that ticket prices will rise gradually going forward so enjoy the cheap prices whilst you can.