More flights than ever are being cancelled or delayed, but why?

In airports, both in Italy and abroad, it has become increasingly common to encounter flight delays and cancellations. According to data from Eurocontrol, an organization that deals with air traffic control, in June, European airports experienced approximately 8,000 hours of delays, nearly 30% more than last year. Corriere della Sera reports that between June 28 and 30 alone, Europe registered half of the canceled flights worldwide. Cirium, another company that monitors air traffic dynamics, calculated that over 8,000 flights were canceled in European airports in the same month, 45% more than in 2023. This issue has grown over the years, becoming increasingly significant, and has grown along with the rise of low-cost carriers, which have contributed to increasing the number of passengers and flights, as well as delays and disruptions. However, the issue does not have a single cause: there are physiological reasons but also, and more importantly, structural ones that are more complex to understand and thus even harder to mitigate.

Why are there so many flight cancellations in Europe?

Disruptions tend to occur more frequently during the summer period because the number of flights on the most popular routes is intentionally increased to meet the needs of people traveling for vacations. Since some routes are added on short notice, individual terminals struggle to properly structure arrivals and departures: consider that in June, low-cost carriers in European airports handled almost 1,300 more flights per day compared to last year. Weather conditions must also always be considered, as they can slow down departures or landings, with cascading effects on air traffic. Climate change, in this sense, having tangible effects on the weather and making some short-term events more extreme, will very likely contribute to worsening the situation. But that's not all: possible and occasional breakdowns of aircraft or infrastructure must also be added, whose consequences often linger for several days. The air transport sector was the most affected by the huge IT problem that occurred in July of this year when a software update connected to Microsoft's operating system caused malfunctions in many corporate devices worldwide. On that occasion, more than 5,000 flights were canceled in a single day. An event of this kind put international airports and beyond – during an already overloaded period in terms of air traffic – in such difficulty that the consequences were felt for a long time, even after the problem was resolved.

The shortage of airport staff

The main factor affecting flight delays and cancellations is a long-standing issue that continues to systematically reduce the efficiency and operational capacity of airports: the chronic lack of flight and ground personnel in the air traffic control sector. The number of people interested in pursuing this career is less than what is needed; moreover, it takes an average of three years to properly train these professionals – a timeline that does not match the growing demand. The issue of staff shortages became particularly evident a few years ago when the numerous layoffs among ground and flight personnel during the months of the pandemic ended up causing huge disruptions in many airports worldwide. However, the issue remains current, so much so that last July some categories of airport workers went on strike at some of the most important Italian airports, including Milan Malpensa and Linate. Recently, Corriere della Sera reported the testimony of an industry insider (who remained anonymous), who described the organization and scheduling of flights by airlines as «schizophrenic». A pilot working in the low-cost sector, also speaking anonymously with Corriere, explained that airlines «compact shifts to the limit, crews are insufficient, and at the first problem [...] they have to call reserves or cancel flights».