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Matt Cooper: Ryanair fills seats as competitors’ Covid cost-cutting fails to pay off
Airline operators are cancelling hundreds of flights and disappointing thousands of travellers as airports such as Gatwick struggle to keep check-in and baggage-handling services running. But it didn’t have to be like this
Dublin Airport is not alone in struggling to cope with the return of air travel. On Friday, Gatwick Airport in London – Britain’s busiest after Heathrow – announced that it would cancel hundreds of flights this summer.
It can’t get enough staff, in particular ground handlers subcontracted through third-party companies, to perform tasks from check-in to baggage handling. The race to the bottom involved in outsourcing and cutting costs is biting.
Cancelling those flights now ...