Status: 07/06/2021 3:32 p.m.
As soon as aviation begins to slowly recover from the Corona crisis, new problems threaten. The insurance company Allianz warns of “anger in the air” from aggressive passengers and of “rusty pilots”.
The end of the long pause in global air traffic forced by the pandemic brings new risks and dangers. This is the result of a current study by the industrial insurer AGCS, which is part of the Allianz insurance group.
“The global fleet shutdowns during the pandemic were an unprecedented event for the aviation industry,” says Axel von Frowein, AGCS Regional Head of Aviation in Central and Eastern Europe. “Without a doubt, challenges will arise when the industry takes off again,” emphasizes the expert.
Pilots lack practice
The study lists some new challenges and consequences: On the one hand, this includes the lack of flying experience on the part of many pilots. The experts at AGCS point out that when flight operations slowly resumed at the beginning of the year, dozens of pilots reported errors, for example during the approach, because they lacked flight practice.
“If people are able to do their job little or not at all for a year and a half, the lack of practice is of course to be viewed with concern,” says AGCS claims manager Till Kürschner. However, according to the study, major airlines have developed targeted training programs for pilots who return to service, depending on the length of the absence.
There could be other problems in connection with parked aircraft: For example, undiscovered insect nests could damage the sensors and engines of the aircraft or render them unreliable. The risk of animal infestation increases if the guidelines for storage are not followed, according to the report. In the USA, isolated insects had settled in parked machines. According to AGCS, no such cases are known from Germany.
Anger in the air
A phenomenon that has been a topic of discussion since the resumption of air traffic is the so-called “air rage”. Outbursts of anger from aircraft passengers are a cause for concern for the industrial insurer. The main focus of the cases is in the USA, where the FAA has counted a good 3100 cases of “Air Rage” since the beginning of the year. That was a multiple of the pre-corona numbers.
2350 of these 3100 cases were mask refusers. “Apparently Americans find it harder than other compatriots to accept that there is a mask requirement,” said AGCS manager von Frowein. “Such incidents occur less often in Europe, but they do happen too,” emphasizes Kürschner.
Von Frowein states that the industry as a whole will change: In the medium term, it will face a shortage of pilots, and this means that many aircraft are at risk of being controlled by inexperienced pilots. The pandemic has also accelerated the replacement of older machines with new, smaller ones, which would make repairs more expensive because of new materials, write the AGCS experts.
Claims activity soon at normal level
According to the report, there were relatively few cases of damage directly related to the pandemic. “During the pandemic, we observed a decrease in the numerous minor damage caused by slips and falls or lost luggage at airports that we would see in a typical year because the number of passengers has decreased,” says Kürschner.
However, there were still major damage to parked aircraft or from crashes and emergency landings. According to Kürschner, some tragic accidents in general aviation have also hit the insurance sector. “We expect claims activity to return to normal as soon as passenger numbers rise again.”
According to AGCS data, collisions and crashes were responsible for 30 percent of the reported insurance claims from 2016 to 2020, but for more than half of the losses of around 14.5 billion euros. Incorrect processing and maintenance accounted for 13 percent of the damage and 24 percent of the damage.