Fire crews drafted in to help with luggage at Edinburgh Airport as staffing crisis continues

Fire crews at Scotland’s busiest airport are working as baggage handlers, we can reveal, as the aviation staffing crisis deepens.

Edinburgh Airport said extra pairs of hands were needed as it struggles to replace workers paid off during the pandemic. It comes after a TUI pilot was pictured loading holidaymakers’ luggage on to a plane at Manchester Airport because there weren’t enough baggage handlers available and arriving passengers were filmed going behind a carousel curtain to retrieve cases after waiting three hours as armed border guards attempted to intervene.

Edinburgh Airport has redeployed 140 workers to other roles including shifts in the security and baggage halls in a bid to keep queues moving and make sure travellers don’t miss flights.

Some are redeployed while on shift and others are paid extra to come in outside of their usual hours. It is understood the firefighters are on shift while working in the baggage hall but not all of them are on watch, so there is always a crew ready to respond to an emergency at short notice.

Sandy Smart of trade union Unite, who represent aviation workers at the airport, said: “They’re pulling staff from all over the place because they’re so short staffed.

“Fortunately, aircraft fires are a relatively rare event but you don’t really want your firefighters to be in the baggage hall. That’s a definite change. They are involved in a lot of other duties like health and safety training, providing first aid cover, but you wouldn’t have seen them in the baggage hall prior to this staffing crisis.”

Edinburgh Airport paid off a third of its workforce during the pandemic and has been on a recruitment drive since late last year as passenger numbers surge from 300,000 in January to a million last month.

A shortage of aviation staff has caused long queues for security checks at Edinburgh and Glasgow airports, and at English airports many travellers have missed flights after being held up amid the chaos.

The disruption at airports south of the border worsened when schools broke up for half-term and further disruption is predicted. Today alone there are 11,000 planes with 1.9 million seats landing at UK airports. Industry figures have warned of longer delays at Scots airports when the school summer holiday begins here bringing a spike in passenger numbers.

In a bid to avoid chaos amid staff shortages, Edinburgh Airport chief executive Gordon Dewar and several of his directors are among those taking part in a voluntary scheme called Here to Help to backfill jobs lost during the pandemic.

He said: “In the past we might have used security staff to help manage the queue or help pick up trays – things that don’t require specialist training. We’ve taken all those jobs away into Here to Help and then allowed the security staff to just do what they do.

“Down in the baggage hall we’ve had the fire service help move bags around because we know they can still deploy if we need them but it’s just extra pairs of hands to help the whole process work.”

Aviation safety expert David Learmount said: “It’s less than ideal. The whole fire crew is together in a fire station and they often have to deploy together so it’s taking crew away from where they should be. The ones who are working in baggage will have to be at the scene of a major incident very rapidly. One thing is for sure, they won’t be able to load bags in full emergency kit because it’s too hot. So, the crew cannot depart all together and go to the scene of a major incident.”

Learmount, a former pilot and flying instructor, said airport fire crews perform a range of functions.

“They’re obviously deployed to disasters or impending disasters,” he said. “For example, one of the undercarriage legs won’t come down so it’s going to be landing on two and eventually the aircraft is going to scrape along the ground and generate heat. The fire crew will have to be out there waiting for the aircraft to land and put foam all over the part of the aircraft that touches the ground.

“They’re also deployed to situations where something might go wrong. So, there are lots and lots of precautionary things. For example, a pilot might call in to say they’ve lost one hydraulic system, the brakes will probably be OK but just in case they don’t could you have an escort for us, please. So, they’re called out fairly regularly.”

Dewar insisted the safety of passengers has not been compromised and said he will have a full staffing compliment by the end of July when new recruits are fully trained and have clearance from the Civil Aviation Authority and the government.

He said the temporary Here to Help scheme has ensured the longest queue for security last week was just under half an hour: “By the time we get to the end of July we’ll have more staff on the ground. We’ve got a cohort of about 30 to 35 people coming on board so I’m reasonably confident that we’re facing no higher risks between now and then.”

Last week Dewar took on a shift in the security hall starting at 4am as part of the Here to Help scheme. He said he had training for three hours beforehand and gave customers advice how to prepare for security, including telling them what items they should remove from their bags.

Sandy Smart, regional officer for Unite the Union, who represents workers at Edinburgh Airport, including security staff and baggage handlers, said: “It’s a sticking plaster. However they dress it up, they’ve got a real problem with recruiting and retaining staff. The issue is they cut too deep during the pandemic. About a third of staff were made redundant.

“Quite a number ended up working in distribution hubs for the likes of Tesco or Amazon and they’ve had a chance to go back to the airport and they’ve decided they’re happy where they are. Maybe the pay isn’t as good but they get to see more of their kids because they’re not getting up for shifts starting at four in the morning.

“It’s not confined to Edinburgh Airport, it’s all the airports across the UK. There are massive problems because they got rid of too many people and can’t get them back.

“People aren’t missing flights yet but Edinburgh and Glasgow airports can be queued out the door. The airports are not coping. If you go into the security hall you’ll see that not all the gates are open because there aren’t enough staff to man them.

“That’s why the chief executive officer is working there and there’s something wrong if you’ve got the highest paid and most senior person in the company doing crowd control and moving trays around.”

Glasgow and Aberdeen airports owner AGS is also desperately trying to take on staff after losing 2,500 workers over the last two years.

Pat McIlvogue, Unite regional officer who represents workers at Glasgow Airport, said: “The aviation sector has been well warned about this and now they’re struggling to recruit and retain. Quite frankly, it’s because the hours are poor and people can get other jobs with more money and less responsibility.”

AGS said: “Recruitment and retention of staff is a challenge across the industry and indeed the wider jobs market. Aviation is not the only industry to experience this.”

The Civil Aviation Authority said: “We do not comment of issues relating to security.”