Europe's air traffic nightmare

Air transport seems to face serious problems every summer season. The large number of flights scheduled during the summer, the lack of available slots and the unfavorable weather conditions caused by climate change lead to the cancellation or postponement of several flights and, implicitly, to the disruption of the passengers' vacation or the journeys they have to make.

The end of last week put me in a position to experience as a passenger what those who choose to travel by air during the summer season face. Being on an infotrip in Stuttgart, Germany, together with several colleagues from the press, I was surprised on Friday evening when, 5 minutes before the start of boarding Swissair LX 1175 to Zurich (from Zurich we were to board during the hour 22 on another Swissair flight to Otopeni), we were informed that the flight was cancelled, without any explanation.

Initially, I thought it was a joke, bearing in mind that in this case it was a Swissair flight, because we were used to such happenings only with the Tarom company, which in case of cancellation does not offer any explanation to passengers and no alternative for rerouting. Unfortunately, the announcement made by an employee of Lufthansa, the company that provides assistance in Germany for Swissair flights, was true, a fact that also surprised the former Polish football player of FCSB, Lukasz Sukala, who was stuck at Stuttgart airport with us , because it also had the same route: Stuttgart-Zurich-Otopeni. Fortunately for him, he immediately received an e-mail from the Swissair company with a rerouting via Paris, the next day, from where he was to leave for Romania on a Tarom flight.

We, being a group of 10 people, did not receive such an email from Swissair, so we had to queue at the Lufthansa service counters and look for solutions. The first and only solution was the worst: splitting the group of 10 people into several rerouting flights, some via Istanbul, some via Frankfurt and some via Budapest, most of which were not scheduled until Sunday, June 30, i.e. two days after the flight canceled. Only one colleague was lucky, with a race on the second day in the morning, at 9 o'clock from Frankfurt to Otopeni, for which the Lufthansa company also paid the price of the train ticket for the distance between Stuttgart airport and Frankfurt airport, but who had to stay close 8 hours in the departure airport to fly to the country. The other nine members of the group received accommodation at the hotel across the road and plane tickets with a stopover in Budapest, for Sunday, June 30.

Because most of us were dissatisfied, those who organized the trip made an effort and purchased other tickets for the next day, Saturday, June 29, on the Stuttgart-Paris-Otopeni route, flights operated by Air France. A solution that Lufthansa, as Swissair's representative in Germany, had not offered us, although we are talking about world-renowned companies.

• Romanians, masters and in the air

The next day, an hour late, I left Stuttgart for Paris, and everything went pretty much as normal at Charles de Gaulle airport until boarding. Which was delayed by 30 minutes. After we had passed the moment of boarding, once we had installed each one in his place, in an aircraft full of eyes, that is, 222 passengers plus the crew on board, and closed the outer doors, the captain informed us that, due to a strong storm from eastern France, we will have to wait on the plane for an hour and 45 minutes before we take off. Later, the time increased to two hours, and another 30 minutes passed until the actual time of takeoff from the airport.

However, we were lucky because, unlike us, the aircraft next door that was supposed to take off for Naples was pulled into the hangar, due to exceeding the three hour delay. I don't know what the Italians waiting for boarding near our gate did, but we breathed a sigh of relief when the Air France flight to Otopeni took off. Only for 10 minutes though, because that storm wasn't over, but the cumulated atmospheric fronts over Western and Central Europe created an area full of electrical discharges and air turbulence that shook us violently for two hours, until we got somewhere above the territory of Hungary.

During the flight, the crew of the aircraft made countless calls to the passengers to stay in their seats, with their seat belts fastened, but we are Romanians and... we are also in control of the air, whether the weather is good or the weather is bad.

When it seemed that the storm had subsided, they proceeded to serve sandwiches, water, juices and beer to the passengers, the acidic drinks being difficult to open due to the shaking during the turbulence, but the turbulence returned at the end of the service, which caused conditions of nausea to some of the passengers who had just eaten their sandwiches. I don't remember here about the torment of those who during the Zdravan turbulences had to use the toilets on the plane, where they were probably terribly shaken due to the weather conditions outside. But I saw people who prayed and bowed down during the flight invoking the divinity to get home safely.

All in all it was a nightmare race, but nevertheless I have to appreciate the professionalism of the aircraft commander and the Air France crew who kept us informed throughout the race of the turbulence we were going through and who kept the plane at the same flight altitude in despite the nearby lightning. The crew's communication with the passengers was very important because we did not witness any panic on board during the entire flight, which was through the middle of the storm. Unlike the Tarom company, where the communication leaves much to be desired, the prices of the rides are very high and you only get a glass of water.

• Thousands of canceled or delayed flights

According to Flightradar24.com data, thousands of flights have been delayed across Europe, the main problem being the storms last weekend, but also the lack of staff, noticed last summer, in the context in which airlines laid off staff during the COVID pandemic and they did not rehire at the same level. According to official data, of the 5,400 passenger aircraft that took off or landed at Otopeni airport in the last two weeks, more than 2,000 had considerable delays, affecting all companies operating in our country in this field. At the same time, there were also canceled flights, such as the one from Brussels, where dozens of Romanians had to sleep two nights in the airport, the one from Hamburg, where 100 Romanians stayed at the airport after the flight to the country was canceled by Lufthansa or the one from Crete where the passengers boarded for Romania only the next day, with a delay of 16 hours. They were told that the bad weather conditions and the large number of planes that had to take off or land were to blame. These phenomena affected the ability of air traffic control authorities and Eurocontrol to manage traffic volumes across the industry, leading to major delays and cancellations across the European airline industry.

The National Authority for Consumer Protection indicated in a press release at the end of last week that, in a single day, for example, European airspace recorded approximately 450,000 minutes of delay, of which 360,000 were due to weather conditions, with significant delays for over 3 hours, which resulted in the cancellation and rescheduling of flights.

For example, more than 500 flights were delayed at each of Frankfurt (FRA), Paris-Charles de Gaulle (CDG), Amsterdam - Schiphol (AMS) and Madrid - Barajas (MAD) airports. The percentage of delayed flights was 85% at London Gatwick Airport. At Madrid Barajas and Rome Leonardo da Vinci Fiumicino it was 80%, and Frankfurt and Paris-Charles de Gaulle (CDG), 78%. Airlines for Europe (A4E), an association of EU airlines representing 70% of European carriers, published a report in 2023 showing that the number of flight delays in the European Union increased by more than 400% compared to previous years.

That's why ANPC recommends passengers to be constantly informed about the weather conditions in the country of destination, as well as in the country of departure, and to keep in touch with the airlines.