There were understaffing issues again at Ryanair’s handling agent, Skytanking, at Eindhoven Airport. As a result, departing Ryanair flights in particular were experiencing delays on Sunday.
The airport encountered delays for incoming flights too, according to Omroep Brabant. “There are simply not enough hands. The Skytanking employees who are there are doing their utmost and will be replaced by a new team later today”, said a spokesperson.
Skytanking company is a real headache at the airport. The problems are caused by structural understaffing and have been ongoing since April of last year, when Ryanair changed ground handlers and Skytanking became responsible for baggage handling.
The results of a recent trade union survey prompted Eindhoven Airport to enter into discussions with Skytanking. Last year, Skytanking already received a warning from the labour inspectorate, Omroep Brabant revealed at the time.
A Skytanking employee spoke anonymously about the workload in July. “Sometimes you’re single-handedly responsible for an entire aircraft. Then you want to work as quickly as possible, otherwise you feel guilty that people are leaving later while going on vacation”.
The workload is also said to be impacting safety. “A colleague of mine wasn’t trained to operate the boarding steps, but his supervisor forced him to do so anyway. If he had caused an accident, he wouldn’t have been insured”.
Source: Studio040
Translated by: Bob
