Last summer, passengers experienced long delays at airports. Photo: REUTERS/Henry Nicholls. tape threatens to delay security checks and clearances for airport security personnel.
The heads of one of the world's largest airport ground handling companies say hundreds of employees bound for UK airports have been left in limbo as it takes 12 weeks to carry out the necessary checks.
Before the pandemic, such checks typically took four to five weeks, according to Menzies bosses.
A year ago, ministers stepped in to loosen background checks so screening and security checks could be accelerated amid chaotic scenes at airports. .
Juliet Thompson, director of human resources for Menzies, said that, to a large extent, this acceleration has faded.
“We are still trying to get the government to try to speed up this process quite difficult, because which is quite a long time,” she added.
“On average, it takes them six to ten weeks to get a security clearance, and then another couple of weeks to be identified at airports.”
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Ms. Thompson and Philipp Joenig, Menzies chief executive, explained that more than 200 future employees of the firm were waiting in line waiting for approval.
“It can be a kind of 12-week process from submitting an offer to receiving a person a permanent badge so they can operate at full capacity within the airport,” added Ms Thompson.
“On average, four to five weeks would be typical for us.”
Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary clasped his horns with Air Secretary Charlotte Vere over warnings of a repeat of last year's airport chaos. Credit: Paulo Nunez dos Santos/Bloomberg
Edinburgh-based Menzies, which employs 27,000 people in 58 countries, stressed that the company and the aviation sector as a whole were far better in terms of staffing ahead of the crucial summer compared to Happy 2022.
Menzies filled 94% of the expected vacancies. But fears remain in other companies in the industry that staffing problems could again arise, especially if demand for the holidays is much higher than currently expected.
Earlier this year, Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary fell out with Baroness Charlotte Ver, Air Minister, during a meeting in which she warned the bosses that there could be no repeat of last year's long lines snaking outside the terminal. buildings.
Brexit is being blamed for last year's airport travel chaos being a cut in the aviation industry's vital labor supply.
But Mr Joynig, a former chief executive of rival Swissport, said the exit Britain out of the European Union will eventually prove beneficial.
“In the short term… Brexit has caused disruption. Processes must and still must be adopted,” he said.
“But in the medium term… there is no domino effect that we expect to last, and even vice versa.
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«Now the UK has an advantage if it can reduce and reduce bureaucracy and become a hub for long-haul transportation from outside Europe to the world.»
A spokesman for the Ministry of Transport said: «The government has accelerated national security screenings and gave the industry more flexibility to conduct its own pre-employment screenings, which helped expedite hiring.»
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