Misery for Thousands
Another typical Saturday morning at NERC. Lots of unreasonable people at airports demanding to be flown to or from their hard-earned holiday in the sun. Then there are those mercenary pilots only too ready to take them, and the airlines carelessly leaving serviceable aircraft around to allow it!!! Don't they know we are short of staff??
On a serious note, this morning's staffing, whilst well short of the requirements, was nothing atypical. Despite the best efforts of everybody involved, with staff moving from sector to sector in an attempt to address the shortfalls, it has been another horrendous day for delays.
At 1pm the aggregate delay for the morning was in excess of 80000 minutes, and rising, with at least 145 flights delayed longer than one hour, some as much as three hours. Palma airport had twenty flights awaiting departure slots for various UK destinations, each delayed over an hour. Can you imagine what the terminal was like?
Using the rule-of-thumb (I don't know where the figure comes from) that each minute of delay costs the airline, on average, £50, then we are well on the way to half-a-million quid's worth this morning alone. And, this afternoon's staffing didn't look any better on paper!!!
Something MUST be done, and soon. Does anybody have any good ideas, 'cos management sure-as-hell don't seem to have?