An airline CEO says that airports were to blame for the summer travel chaos because they were not ready to welcome passengers

• Airports are to blame for flight cancellations and delays this summer, an airline CEO said.
• Icelandair's CEO told Insider that some airports were not ready to welcome passengers.
• Bogi Nils Bogason said he strongly believes the industry will return to normal by next summer.

For many airline passengers, the summer of 2022 was a frustrating experience. Huge queues, long waits for missing baggage, and last-minute flight cancellations were common occurrences.

The CEO of transatlantic airline Icelandair told Insider that he believed the blame for the disruption rested with airports.

"Some airports were not ready to welcome passengers," Bogi Nils Bogason said. Despite the fact that flight schedules had been prepared and advertised since the spring, airports gave airlines no warning that they were unprepared to welcome high numbers of passengers, he added.

Some of the world's busiest airports struggled to cope at times as demand for flights surged during the summer. Workers that were laid off have been slow to return in the numbers needed, leaving many airports short-staffed, leading to difficulties handling baggage and long delays.

Amsterdam Schiphol airport and Heathrow, both major hubs for Icelandair, have had to issue caps on the number of passengers, leading to flight cancellations.

"We didn't have any staffing issues at Icelandair," Bogason said, adding that the airline hired its baggage handlers in-house. However, issues at airports including Heathrow, Amsterdam Schiphol, and Dublin had "caused disruption in our operation," he said.

Amid the disruption, the airline chose to fly some of its own baggage handlers from Iceland to help unload and process bags, Bogason said.

"If we have some delays in Amsterdam, it causes delays because the flights from Amsterdam are connecting to departures to North America," Bogason said.

Amsterdam Schiphol did not immediately respond to Insider's request for further comment.

Like other carriers, Icelandair saw demand for travel rebound this summer. According to the airline's third-quarter results, it carried 1.4 million passengers between June and September — 82% of the airline's pre-pandemic capacity.

However, its on-time performance — the percentage of flights that arrived within 15 minutes of their scheduled time — was 70% during the same time period, per the third-quarter results. The company blamed the shortfall on staffing issues at major international airports.

Despite the challenges this summer, Bogason said he "firmly believes" that the industry should be back to normal, pre-COVID-19 levels, by next summer.

According to its website, Icelandair flies to 15 cities in North America from Europe. Its hub airport is Keflavik International Airport.

The airline is Iceland's national carrier and is notable for its Stopover ticket, which enables travelers to add an extended layover in the country without an additional cost.