Airports across Europe expect delays to increase into the summer because of a chronic shortage of staff, according to industry bodies ACI Europe and the Airport Services Association (ASA). In a joint statement, the organisations warn that "the impossibility of scaling up staffing to the levels required in order to accommodate the surge in passenger traffic" is the key driver behind delays, cancellations, "and more generally a degraded passenger experience at many airports". They highlight that airports and ground handlers are exiting the pandemic with depleted resources, having shed staff in 2020 and 2021. This has been compounded by an extremely tight labour market across the continent which has dragged on airports' efforts to recruit new staff, especially given low pay rates for security and ground handling staff. The organisations assert that "years of liberalisation triggered by the EU Ground Handling Directive have resulted in a downward spiral that has now become both socially and operationally unsustainable", adding: "If low wages and compromised service quality were already a concern pre-pandemic, they are now coming to the fore – impacting the aviation system." Delays bringing new staff on board because of security clearances have contributed to the problems, resulting in lead times of up to 16 weeks between recruitment and actual deployment. The groups cite a new ACI Europe survey showing that two-thirds of Europe's airports expect flight delays to increase going into the summer, while 16% believe that cancellations will rise and 15% predict that flight schedules will have to be modified. They are urging authorities to provide faster security clearance for new staff, and airlines to adapt their schedules to reduce traffic peaks, and for closer dialogue between airports and airlines. In the medium term, the EU's rules on ground handling should be reconsidered with a renewed focus on resilience, they argue. The warnings tally with what airlines themselves expect. IAG on 6 May disclosed plans to pare back summer capacity at Heathrow because of the likelihood of delays on the ground. Lufthansa has said on 5 May that it would hold back capacity partly for the same reason.

Etihad Airways recently performed 42 eco flights using Airbus A350-1000 over a period of five days to test operational efficiencies, technology and procedures that will reduce carbon emissions. The sustainable flight testing programme included 22 contrail prevention flights over the course of three days, the UAE's flag carrier says. Additionally, Etihad's Sustainable50 A350-1000 officially became the first A350 to operate as an eco flight. Etihad Aviation's group chief executive Tony Douglas states: "We believe this is the most intensive sustainability flight testing programme ever conducted, the results of which will contribute to reducing aviation's carbon emissions and environmental impact as the learnings are implemented into standard airline operations across the industry. "Some of the technologies and operational efficiencies we have tested can be implemented today and we're well in the process of putting these innovations into standard operational procedures, which we hope to see replicated across the industry, while some technologies are still in their infancy and we'll continue to work with our partners to test and develop these for future use. However, there are a number of impactful solutions which are ready to go, but require an industry and regulatory response to become practical, that the industry needs to raise to the challenge for." Etihad points to sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), acknowledging that both SAF and lower carbon aviation fuel are needed for aviation's energy transition. Douglas states: "This challenge needs policy changes from governments, continued R&D, supply chain enhancements and refining improvements." "The other big area, which has a simple solution but requires fundamental restructure to the way things currently work, is for the industry, traffic controllers and regulators to modernise flight paths for controlled climbs and continuous descent. In our demonstration eco flights, we've been able to take at least 40 minutes out of flight times and reduce the CO2 content by around six tonnes, which is incredible," he adds.

Airbus has highlighted stepped-up efforts to manage supply-chain hold-ups as it outlined a plan to raise monthly A320-family production to 75 aircraft in 2025. Chief executive Guillaume Faury said during a results briefing on 4 May that the European airframer had encountered disruptions at its assembly lines because of suppliers' struggles to deliver equipment on time as production increased amid the fading effects of the pandemic. "What is changing tremendously is the ability of suppliers to deliver on time," Faury says. Dealing with the consequences is, he notes, is "time-consuming and quite expensive". He adds: "This is indeed very significant." Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the increased output, Faury says Airbus's efforts to manage supplier disruptions is "by far higher" now than during the past two years. He says the airframer is "managing the crisis one by one" and "putting a lot of resources" in to ensure that hold-ups do not slow down final assembly lines and potentially delay aircraft deliveries. Beyond supply-chain bottlenecks, Faury acknowledges that the war in Ukraine and sanctions against Russia have created additional headwinds in a "complex environment". In the past, Airbus sourced around 50% of its titanium requirements from Russian supplier VSMPO Avisma. Faury says the airframer has secured titanium provisions for the short and medium term, and is talking to alternative suppliers to meet future demand. Longer term, Faury is confident that supply-chain bottlenecks will be overcome and that the airframer will be able to ramp up production beyond a first target of reaching Rate 65 on the A320 family in mid-2023. He says Airbus assessed a "very large" number of suppliers – the "most important" ones – on their ability to increase production. "It's always possible to ramp up beyond a certain aircraft [number] in a certain timeframe," he suggests. The approximately two-year schedule to reach Rate 75 in 2025, from 65 in mid-2023, provides "enough time to have the speed of ramp-up that is consistent with what the supply chain will be able to deliver", he says. Following up on his comments in February that Airbus wanted to decide by June whether to ramp up production beyond Rate 65, he says the airframer has accelerated the decision timeframe "because the indicators were telling us we had the conditions to launch the rate increase". Airbus plans to increase the ramp-up at its final assembly lines in Toulouse, Hamburg, Mobile and Tianjin, he notes. The industrial footprint at the US site in Mobile will be increased as part of the plan. In Toulouse, a former A380 production line is being adapted for A321 assembly, to enable Airbus to manufacture the variant – now the A320neo series' most successful model – at all production sites. In the widebody segment – all assembled in Toulouse – Airbus wants to increase monthly A350 production to "around six" in 2023 and A330 output to "almost three" a month by year-end. On the A220 programme, meanwhile, Airbus targets 14 aircraft by 2025. That narrowbody is being assembled in Montreal and Mobile.