Holidays and Airport 'Chaos' since COVID

[SeatBackForward]

Wonder if Sydney Airport Corporation Limited's shareholders are concerned. Probably not.

 

[Quickstatus]

construction works

I’m not sure. Didn’t Dan Andrews shut down VIC again, again, again etc?

 

[Quickstatus]

Insufficient staff at checkin counters,

That’s why and for other related reasons I’m not rushing to buy a ticket to anywhere soon.

Lots of passengers but no one can afford fuel for their cars?.

 

[AIRwin]

Lots of passengers but no one can afford fuel for their cars?.

Airfares cheaper than petrol?

 

[Seat0B]

Airlines would be far better off if they refused to fly passengers

Chanelling Sir Humphrey there, @jrfsp

 

[Seat0B]

Not just in SYD either, judging by others comments and media articles from Manchester and other airports round the world. Seems pretty amateurish though considering the airlines would be able to predict an hour by hour breakdown of planned aircraft departures and total passenger numbers in their booking system so it should really just be a process of giving these numbers to the security contractors for the next few days and adjusting the size of the workforce to meet demand. Its not like people wait until the day before they fly to book their flights.

Yep, they seem in dire need of some operations management or basic logistics planning training. It's actually not that hard to forecast demand that close to departure time, as you say @eastwest101.

 

[Seat0B]

Yeah - its up to the airport to provide the facilities that can stay open without the roof leaking onto electronic equipment, so airport owners fault there, but the staffing levels themselves would be under the control of the security company contractors managment? They would be making the day to day decisions of rostering on X number of people for Y hours at each terminal. Surely there would be some sort of information gathering from all the airlines to the security contractors as to approximate numbers of departing pax each day?

OMG, you would hope that whoever is the client for the security contract had the procurement brains to go with a performance contract ie "supplier will be able to process passengers with a maximum wait time of 15/20/30 minutes" rather than an inputs based contract ie "have x security people rostered". Clients are not buying inputs they are buying the service of security clearance of pax. The suppliers would then legitimately expect to have estimated pax numbers and would be able to dynamic roster accordingly. Looks like it's not only the call centre staff that lack skills and training!

 

[clifford]

That’s why and for other related reasons I’m not rushing to buy a ticket to anywhere soon.

Depends where you're flying from/to.

Yesterday I flew CFS-SYD-CBR, and apart from the weather delays it was a breeze. In fact, I went through security twice, because I thought the CFS Qantas Club was airside (how silly!).

It won't put me off flying, but I won't be planning to go through security at SYD/MEL any time soon.

 

[Saab34]

Alan's blaming passengers.....
"Mr Joyce agreed, stating at a press conference that “our customers are not match fit”.

“I went through the airports on Wednesday and people forget they need to take out their laptops, they have to take out their aerosols ... so that is taking longer to get through the queue.”"

Airlines would be far better off if they refused to fly passengers

AJ now trying to backtrack....whoopsy must have got a message from the board.

https://www.ntnews.com.au/news/nsw/sydney-airport-struggles-to-cope-with-weekend-traffic-sparking-major-frustration/news-story/e2c466cfeb6b7f0071086810069c8a13?amp&nk=5ce8915c6b185d38a896fa89282ffaa2-1649407344

 

[jrfsp]

Looks horrendous

 

[Seat0B]

OMG, you would hope that whoever is the client for the security contract had the procurement brains to go with a performance contract ie "supplier will be able to process passengers with a maximum wait time of 15/20/30 minutes" rather than an inputs based contract ie "have x security people rostered". Clients are not buying inputs they are buying the service of security clearance of pax. The suppliers would then legitimately expect to have estimated pax numbers and would be able to dynamic roster accordingly. Looks like it's not only the call centre staff that lack skills and training!

I’ve just re-read my earlier post and I’m sorry if this sounded directed at you @eastwest101 - certainly wasn’t! I’m in strong agreement with your comments. My suggestion about lack of training was for Qantas procurement and contracting staff. I must try to be clearer in my rants!

 

[Pushka]

Full body scans required today in Canberra and random selection in Adelaide yesterday plus body Pat downs (either in the open or option for in private) now required aren't helping with crowding here either.

 

[Hvr]

One thing that comes to mind is that some executives aren't competent in their role and as business is ramping up after the COVID shut down, they simply do not know how to plan ahead.

The current school holidays are essentially the reopening of unlimited domestic Australian travel and should inspire confidence in people that businesses are ready to move forward to meet their reasonable requirements of basic customer service.

The opportunity to inspire confidence in passengers that businesses are ready to deliver a service may have suffered a dent.

And yet these same businesses will continue to whinge that people aren't travelling like they believe they should.

 

[eastwest101]

I’ve just re-read my earlier post and I’m sorry if this sounded directed at you @eastwest101 - certainly wasn’t! I’m in strong agreement with your comments. My suggestion about lack of training was for Qantas procurement and contracting staff. I must try to be clearer in my rants!

No need for apologies, you were making a good point the airlines collect the passenger movement and security charges, that money the goes to the relevant airport owner who then subcontract out the actual job of staffing screening and security on a per passenger amount. These contracts should have some sort of measurable performance metrics, if drafted properly as you say.

 

[dajop]

And at the other end of the journey after arriving in MEL from SIN this evening, lots of chaos in the arrivals area with taxi queues, rideshares and pickups. It's about time MEL started patrolling the pickup areas, as people just go there and park for 15-20mins whilst waiting to get passengers, making it difficult for non-uber rideshare collections. I won't start on the rideshare cancellations I had that's a story for a different thread.

 

[kookaburra75]

Full body scans required today in Canberra and random selection in Adelaide yesterday plus body Pat downs (either in the open or option for in private) now required aren't helping with crowding here either.

There have been hassles at Canberra screening for a while, due to staff shortages. Many a time there is only one female staff member on the screening, who is the only person who can do pat downs/checks on female passengers. Every time someone needs to be checked, female passengers are stopped from going through security until the checks are over. MrsK refused to let me go through without her, muttering something about how I'm not allowed to be left unsupervised in the lounge.

 

[Astro]

Today will be the same by the looks. These are all attributed to this morning around 5am

 

[Mattg]

I don't think I'm an inexperienced traveller by any means, but every single airport seems to have different requirements about whether you need to take your laptop out, aerosols out, whether liquids need to go in a plastic bag, belt off, etc. It can get confusing if you're regularly flying from different airports, even if you are "match fit".

Either way, the long security lines in SYD were clearly caused by a huge number of passengers and inadequate staff. Several security lanes were closed that could have been opened to help clear the backlog.

Unfortunately, as we know, Qantas management has serious form in blaming customers for things.

 

[Pushka]

There have been hassles at Canberra screening for a while, due to staff shortages. Many a time there is only one female staff member on the screening, who is the only person who can do pat downs/checks on female passengers. Every time someone needs to be checked, female passengers are stopped from going through security until the checks are over. MrsK refused to let me go through without her, muttering something about how I'm not allowed to be left unsupervised in the lounge.

I got the impression from Mr P they were patting down everyone not just randoms. In Adelaide, and only Adelaide, it's umbrellas. Melb security laugh each time I ask them if I need to take one out.

 

[Rugby]

I‘ve got 2 trips away during the school holiday period and i don’t have school aged kids - what was I thinking! There was talk, a few days ago, of a bus strike in Sydney on Monday too, which is my first flight.