Air transport demand in Europe is still 75% from 2019 levels and the main current challenge is delays and cancellations affecting parts of the European system, according to the international industry association (IATA).

Given the hiring challenges facing the industry, "further disruption is inevitable as demand continues to increase," International Air Transport Association (IATA) Regional Vice President for Europe Rafael Schvartzman said today.

According to Lusa, the official, who was speaking at IATA's 78th Annual General Assembly in the Qatari capital Doha, said that so far this year, on average, about 69% of flights in Europe are delayed.

The total backlog is 5.2 million minutes, which is comparable to 2019 data, "but the main difference is that we are still below pre-pandemic demand," and in addition, the numbers from three years ago were heavily affected by weather and other events, he said.

During the covid-19 pandemic, actual cancellations were considerably higher than the expected average, but as restrictions against the Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus responsible for covid-19 were lifted, the numbers began to decline until about mid-May, when they increased again as demand increased and timeliness decreased.

Aviation is "a complex interconnected chain" and airlines are at the mercy of other players, in particular airports and air traffic control, he indicated.

Air traffic management delays are also increasing, but are not "as worrying" as the staffing delays that have now become the main problem, after many workers decided to leave the industry during the pandemic or were laid off, and although recruitment is now occurring as quickly as possible, security clearance is a key difficulty.

The current process takes between two and six weeks, which means that increased recruitment for the summer is a big challenge, Schvartzman added, although he believes that governments can help, for example through mutual recognition of security clearance, so that an employee from one European country can switch to do the same job in another EU country without delay.

"One-day" credentials should also be made available to allow personnel without full security clearance to work in restricted areas under the supervision of a fully cleared employee, among other measures.

In addition, airports should monitor their bottlenecks and make new capacity declarations, well in advance, so that airlines can inform customers of changes to their flights, giving them time to reschedule trips or have alternative solutions.

Given that many delays are beyond the airlines' control and if, in addition, airports force cancellations at short notice, the classification of these cases as extraordinary circumstances is "unclear" and there has been a lack of guidance from both the European Commission and national bodies, he said.

If compensation is due, but the airline is not at fault, "then there should be some sort of mechanism for airlines and airports to come to a fair resolution," he suggested.

What is needed is cooperation across the system, including governments and regulators, to help the industry meet the challenges of a restart from a near shutdown, he concluded.