3 ms·

I don't get why this is difficult: charge the airlines more money. They will charge the passengers more money. Either there will then be fewer flights and pass

by mabbo 4y ago

I don't get why this is difficult: charge the airlines more money. They will charge the passengers more money. Either there will then be fewer flights and passengers, and the existing staff count can handle it, or there will be the same number of flights and enough money to hire more staff to handle it. This is how a free market economy works, right?

TheLoafOfBread 4y ago
[flagged]
nick_ 4y ago
Free market economy is a misnomer that seems to actually mean: don't tax us when things are going well, but spend taxes on us when they're not.
klyrs 4y ago
Airlines are taking people's money and not delivering on flights. I'm not sure that giving them an excuse to rake even greater profits is going to help the situation.
jltsiren 4y ago
Airports can't unilaterally raise the fees, because there are existing contracts between them and airlines. The fees will eventually rise to a stable level, but that could take months or even years. That's also part of free markets. Sometimes you simply fail, because you took risks and the risks materialized.
topkai22 4y ago
That assumes a perfect, friction less economy. I'm going to make some assumptions here, but to hire a baggage handler you'll have to 1) pass a background check 2) Receive training on airport safety, 3) be trained on how to load and balance bags. That will likely to take 2-4 weeks, minimum. Additionally, Heathrow slots are already sold, they likely can't change the price for the next 2 months anyways. Finally, labor is a bit different then goods- if you raise the marginal cost of an orange all the oranges you've already bought don't suddenly start costing you more. If raise the wage to attract more workers you'll generally have to raise the wages of existing workers as well to retain them. This is a really bad situation if you have a lot of fixed price orders on the books (as Heathrow likely does with airlines). If you overshoot pay and hiring to fix a short term issue you can end up with a worse problem long term. Raising prices and pay solves the shortage in the long term, but in the short term it won't fix the problem, so the 2 month cap makes sense.
- MattGaiser 4y ago
  Weeks? In Canada, anecdotally, it can take up to 9 months for them to clear the background checks, as the background checking offices are also dealing with high turnover.
xdfgh1112 4y ago
People really don't like price hikes. Even a minor increase in fares could cause a disproportionately large loss of customers. Edit: though for their part, the airline companies have been warning that prices are going up for a few months now.
lozenge 4y ago
They just raised it from £22 to £30 per passenger. The airport wanted to raise it higher but the government refused. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/dec/16/passengers-face-fare-rises-after-37-hike-in-heathrow-landing-fees https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/dec/16/passengers-f... The government has clear reasons for interfering: it's nearly a monopoly due to other airports not having enough capacity, and the same companies run multiple airports. Lower flight prices encourage international tourism which is a positive externality that the airport doesn't benefit from. Obviously, the government also controls flight capacity by not approving new runways, setting noise hours, etc.

by mabbo 4y ago

TheLoafOfBread 4y ago

[flagged]

nick_ 4y ago

Free market economy is a misnomer that seems to actually mean: don't tax us when things are going well, but spend taxes on us when they're not.

klyrs 4y ago

Airlines are taking people's money and not delivering on flights. I'm not sure that giving them an excuse to rake even greater profits is going to help the situation.

jltsiren 4y ago

Airports can't unilaterally raise the fees, because there are existing contracts between them and airlines. The fees will eventually rise to a stable level, but that could take months or even years. That's also part of free markets. Sometimes you simply fail, because you took risks and the risks materialized.

topkai22 4y ago

That assumes a perfect, friction less economy. I'm going to make some assumptions here, but to hire a baggage handler you'll have to 1) pass a background check 2) Receive training on airport safety, 3) be trained on how to load and balance bags. That will likely to take 2-4 weeks, minimum. Additionally, Heathrow slots are already sold, they likely can't change the price for the next 2 months anyways. Finally, labor is a bit different then goods- if you raise the marginal cost of an orange all the oranges you've already bought don't suddenly start costing you more. If raise the wage to attract more workers you'll generally have to raise the wages of existing workers as well to retain them. This is a really bad situation if you have a lot of fixed price orders on the books (as Heathrow likely does with airlines). If you overshoot pay and hiring to fix a short term issue you can end up with a worse problem long term. Raising prices and pay solves the shortage in the long term, but in the short term it won't fix the problem, so the 2 month cap makes sense.

MattGaiser 4y ago
Weeks? In Canada, anecdotally, it can take up to 9 months for them to clear the background checks, as the background checking offices are also dealing with high turnover.

xdfgh1112 4y ago

People really don't like price hikes. Even a minor increase in fares could cause a disproportionately large loss of customers. Edit: though for their part, the airline companies have been warning that prices are going up for a few months now.

lozenge 4y ago

They just raised it from £22 to £30 per passenger. The airport wanted to raise it higher but the government refused. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/dec/16/passengers-face-fare-rises-after-37-hike-in-heathrow-landing-fees https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/dec/16/passengers-f... The government has clear reasons for interfering: it's nearly a monopoly due to other airports not having enough capacity, and the same companies run multiple airports. Lower flight prices encourage international tourism which is a positive externality that the airport doesn't benefit from. Obviously, the government also controls flight capacity by not approving new runways, setting noise hours, etc.