Chaos

News from my 25th visit to Corfu on the day of our 25th wedding anniversary.

Hello, hello; it’s good to be back. Did you miss me when I was away? Of course you didn’t and starting a blog including lyrics written by a former pop star and now jailed paedophile may not be my smartest move, but hey, that’s me!

Anyway, these words reach you from Lakka, a village on the tiny Greek island of Paxos. We’ve been meaning to come here for nearly 30 years, having once paid a passing visit as part of a boat trip from Corfu and this is the ‘story’ so far. If you’re easily bored, then look away now.

I start the story, such as it is, at Adge Cutler International Airport AKA Bristol Airport. We had read and heard about all the chaos at the airport and various rebuttals so here is our experience.

Our flight to Corfu was scheduled to depart at 18.15 although we had known since early morning that the plane taking us had been delayed taking off to Cyprus, which meant our flight would almost certainly be delayed. Once you know you are going to be delayed, it somehow doesn’t feel quite so bad and it was in a relaxed state of mind we checked in at the Silver Zone parking area with its new key drop off procedure which was so straightforward I had to ask a member of staff, a very nice British Somali lady, how it worked. My bad not the system’s.

The transfer bus to the airport was there and waiting and on we hopped as it left immediately. Swinging around corners while standing in the middle of the bus trying to keep our luggage upright was perhaps not ideal but soon we were inside the terminal building. And the easyJet section was very quiet, no queues at all. This was going to be a breeze. So much for the media hysteria about queues, long waits; in short CHAOS. Until we headed up the stairs (the escalator was out of action) to security. The queue was right back to and actually on the stairs but as it was our wedding anniversary I had booked ‘fast track security’. We passed through in maybe 10/15 minutes. I can only guess at how long it took for people without fast track. Maybe an hour, maybe even longer? There’s a vital lesson: get ripped off by taking fast track security. But if we thought that was the end of the fun we were very much mistaken.

Waddling through so called ‘Duty Free’ – yeah, right; tax free but not mark up free! – we emerged airside to vast hordes of people. Everywhere. There were no seats to be had so folk were sitting on the floor. The queues at the bar, to purchase generic lager at £7, were insane. Having flown from Bristol since the 1980s, this was a new experience. What was going on? This is what we learned:

• There were cancelled flights which led to later cancelled flights. Mostly easyJet as far as I could tell. Some flights were cancelled when people were airside. They were told to leave departures, via duty free if they had purchased overpriced booze and tat. These had to be returned so not only were you not going anywhere, you had to take your booze back, all the while trying to rebook on easyJet’s website. Some easyJet staff were temporarily redeployed to assist with cancelled flights. More about this soon.
• I would say most flights were delayed, including ours. Some up to an hour, some up to five. All airlines were affected. The reasons were numerous but our flight captain told us that easyJet had made up so much time that we were ready to leave with only a 30 minute delay. Because of – in this order – understaffing in baggage handling (Swissport), staff being redeployed from departure gates to deal with passengers whose flights had been cancelled and European ATC restrictions we finally left two hours late.
• The baggage handling issues meant that some inbound passengers were waiting for between an hour and three hours to reclaim their luggage.
• Airport staff are having to deal with people arriving ridiculously early for the flights. There have been long queues by 3.00am which is a full hour before baggage drop off opens. When people have been arriving at say 4.00am the queues have been enormous.
• The airport stated that the reason there are so many early morning flights is because people like to leave early to spend longer at their chosen resort. But this is only partly true. The main reason that there are so many early flights is because airlines need to cram in as many flights as possible per plane to make them profitable. Ryanair planes can carry out sometimes four flights a day.
• Taking an early evening flight did not mean a quieter airport!

I dread to think what effect the summer timetable will have but I can’t see how things will get better. And now to more controversy: Bristol Airport is not big enough.

I get the environmental side of the debate but people want to travel. I want to save the planet but I also want to go to Greece. Maybe the solution is some kind of rising air passenger duty so that the more you fly the more you pay? That way Joe and Josephine Public get their two weeks in the sun and the frequent flyers can cover their carbon footprint by paying a bit more? Just a thought.

We were the last flight into Corfu, landing at 1.15am. By 1.55am we were tucked up in our hotel bed. A world record, I’m sure you can agree.

Talking to fellow passengers, Bristol is far from unique in its problems. We heard horror stories from Manchester and Heathrow but not Gatwick. But anecdotes are not statistics. For every “Ignore the media hype” social media post there is a negative story out there. The Bristol Live website might well be clickbait shit and the Mail is full of lies, but things are complicated. Just because you say there are no problems does not mean you won’t have them.

We’re in Paxos now, waiting for a thunderstorm that seems to be running late. Perhaps there are ATC restrictions?

Finally, I’d booked the rip off ‘Aspire lounge’ for our anniversary. Swissport cancelled that the day before our flight, too, without giving a reason (it was staff shortages caused by them sacking half of their staff during Covid, Brexit because European workers have mostly gone home and because Swissport pay such terrible wages they can’t recruit British staff).

Enjoy your holidays this year, as we are doing, and expect the worst at the airport. Then, you might be less disappointed or even pleasantly surprised.