I would love to know how tour operators and airline bosses sleep at night because they just seem to be bombarded with one hurdle after another. Everybody was under the impression that the travel industry would burst back to normal after the pandemic, but it’s been a hard and arduous slog for the industry, and now Covid is back in parts of Europe and the UK causing fresh problems.
Gatwick has been forced to reduce flight operations due to staff, in particular air-traffic controllers, being off sick, many with Covid.
And on the topic of air-traffic controllers, the French, as usual, had a field day this summer with strikes and walkouts, while the European airspace was overhauled causing further problems to flight operations.
Then we had the wave of airline and airport strikes across Europe and the UK, all this against the backdrop of wildfires and flooding, which are sadly beyond anyone’s control, not to mention other adverse weather phenomena.
Add to the mix the cost-of-living squeeze, hotel prices in destinations like the Balearics being hiked by around 20%, never mind the general cost of going out and about, and being a tour operator or operating an airline which is dependent on the tourist market must have been, and continues to be, a serious headache and constant worry.
And the war in Ukraine has pushed up operating costs, especially for airlines, with fuel prices peaking at near premium prices. That said, the Britons continue to be the dominant market in Spain, and by a large margin despite the Spanish tourist board having said that they would rather have more Germans than Britons. Very dangerous talk.