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The chaos caused by strikes and staff shortages at many European airports last summer had a noticeable impact on punctuality. From July to September, no fewer than 37 percent of flights were delayed.

This is evident from a study that the company Airhelp presented on Tuesday. In the last summer before the corona pandemic, 2019, that was only a good 27 percent.

According to Airhelp, 99 million passengers across Europe experienced delays, about ten million more than in 2019. Delays were particularly high in Serbia. Almost half of all flights there were delayed (47 percent). But also in Greece (around 45 percent) and Bulgaria (around 44 percent) many flights did not depart as planned.

Increasing delay “alarming”

According to Airhelp, the increase in the delay rate is “alarming”, also because “airports and airlines still have fewer people to process than they did three years ago”. The company expects a further increase in delays this summer given the continued shortage of skilled workers, strikes and unpredictable extreme weather conditions.

Passengers in Finland, Lithuania and Norway experienced relatively few delays. In Finland and Lithuania about 20 percent of passengers departed late, in Norway it was over 22 percent. (sda/afp)