Will your summer holidays be disrupted by the lack of staff in the airlines? For several weeks, flight cancellations have been increasingly frequent at European airports. In the majority of cases, they are due to strikes caused by the lack of personnel.

Indeed, the air transport sector has been branded by the health crisis. Over the past two years, many airlines have made budget cuts and laid off some of their employees. Result: “At Aéroports de Paris alone, there would be a shortage of 4,000 people”, reports Capital.

To avoid cancellations as summer approaches, the CEO of Wizz Air, a Hungarian low-cost company, has asked its employees to “make an effort to avoid cancellations”, reports Europe 1.

A solution that endangers the safety of staff and passengers according to the European Cockpit Association (union of European pilots). According to them, “asking pilots to fly when they are tired is like giving the keys to a car to a drunk driver”.

To make up for the lack of pilots, some companies are also considering hiring self-employed pilots.

As summer approaches and to avoid flight cancellations as much as possible, some low-cost airlines are calling on self-employed pilots. “For this, they go through subcontractors, more or less virtuous”, reports Europe 1.

A solution that is not without danger for the union National Union of Airline Pilots (SNPL): “It poses several problems, especially for flight safety. When you are self-employed, you may carry out the mission while being tired or sick”, expresses Olivier Cadiot, spokesperson for the SNPL.

A situation which, in addition to security issues, raises the question of the precariousness of these “Uber-type” drivers.