Although inbound tourism to Japan is picking with the easing of COVID-19 border controls, a dire shortage of ground staff at airports is hampering the airline industry’s post-pandemic recovery.

Alarmed at the situation, a transport ministry expert panel moved to address the crisis with a May 11 proposal to raise the salaries of ground staff to make the sector more attractive to job hunters. It also called on airport ground handling companies to adopt a unified staff evaluation system.

So many ground staff quit their jobs during the pandemic that airports are now struggling to handle the influx of international flights, which has resulted in delays in resuming inbound flights and long lines at airport security checks.

The expert panel hopes to compile formal proposals by the end of June.

The labor shortage is acute when it comes to finding staff to guide arriving aircraft to parking aprons, ensuring that passengers go to airport check-in counters and providing airport security inspectors.

According to the ministry, 61 major airport ground handling companies had around 21,600 employees as of December, or around 20 percent fewer than in March 2019, before the pandemic started.

In addition to the pandemic, salaries and working conditions are believed to account for the exodus of airport staff.

Employees of small- or midsized airport ground handling companies draw an average annual salary of 3.26 million yen ($24,200). Their working hours are also decided by the number of flights, which can change in an instant for all sorts of reasons.

The panel, which is chaired by Kazusei Kato, a professor of transport economy at Keio University’s faculty of business and commerce in Tokyo, has discussed how to deal with the labor shortage since February.

The draft proposal calls for salary increases for airport ground staff, which the panel said could be accomplished if airlines are willing to pay more to airport ground handling companies or local authorities provide grants to those entities.

The panel proposed unifying the staff evaluation system to make it easier to secure qualified personnel.

As things stand, airport ground handling companies adopt different certifications for their staff according to which airline companies they are affiliated with.

The panel said these measures should be adopted to achieve “sustainable development of airport operations.”

One way to alleviate the shortage of airport security inspectors would be to introduce “smart lanes” at airports, the panel said. This would allow multiple travelers to undergo airport security checks on the same screening lane at the same time to reduce the burden on the inspectors and improve efficiency.

An official at the aviation division of the Hokkaido prefectural government expressed anxiety over meeting the demands of foreign visitors if the airport labor shortage continues.

Plans to increase the number of international flights at Shin-Chitose Airport, the gateway for Hokkaido, remain in limbo.

Foreign airlines and airport ground handling companies have been unable to agree on contracts to increase the number of international flights at the airport on multiple routes, officials said.

They cited a shortage of ground staff on days when foreign airlines are keen to operate.

Other regional airports, such as the one on Ishigakijima island in Okinawa Prefecture, are in a similar situation or face a shortage of airport security inspectors.

Local authorities are bracing for a recovery in the number of foreign tourists after a three-year slump due to the pandemic.

Ministry officials contend the labor shortage means that airport ground handling companies are not able to provide appropriate staffing.

Airport ground handling staff are responsible for guiding arriving aircraft to parking aprons, loading luggage onto aircraft and ensuring that passengers go to airport check-in counters.

Group companies of All Nippon Airways Co. and Japan Airlines Co. perform ground tasks in urban areas, for example at Haneda Airport in Tokyo and Itami Airport in Osaka Prefecture.

At regional airports, local companies such as bus firms or travel agents are responsible for those tasks.

Takayuki Katori, who works at a JAL section involved in ground handling tasks for overseas airlines, says, “If we leave the situation as it is, it is possible that we will not be able to maintain current operational conditions in the future.”

(This article was written by Shinya Matsumoto and Eishi Kado.)