Two-thirds of European airports expect flights delays to get worse this summer season.

A new survey from ACI EUROPE, the trade organisation for European airports, finds that 66% expect flight delays to increase.

The body notes that the delays are due to an airport and ground handling ‘staff crunch’ brought on by the difficulties in replacing staff that were laid off during the pandemic.

Delays have eased at Dublin Airport since major queues at security caused chaos towards the end of May.

Airport operator DAA is working to hire more than 300 new security screeners; however, like other airports around the world, it is finding the process difficult due to the terms and conditions on offer and the length of time it takes to get security clearance for workers.

DAA now expects to have a full complement of security staff by June.

Other European airports may take longer to respond however, with ACI EUROPE noting that most of its members expect the quality of the passenger experience to be "unavoidably affected by this staffing crunch this summer”.

Not only do two-third of its members expect to see an increase in flight delays, some 35% said they expect operations to be impacted beyond the summer season.

Meanwhile, 16% said they expect an increase in flight cancellations and 15% expect flight schedules to be adapted.

The body is calling for security clearance times to be accelerated to alleviate the staffing pressures.