Groundfarce (2)

I have complained before about baggage reclaim at Lisbon airport. Now the situation appears a little clearer:

• ANA airports is a State-owned company that has to get as fat as possible before its privatisation.
• As such it has no performance objectives (just like PT and EDP before their sale, and Galp to this day).
• ANA put its handling out to contract, choosing the cheapest proposal regardless of any evaluation of quality of service.
• The winning bid, by Groundforce, is based on exploiting its workforce to the maximum.
• The workers have finally grown tired of the conditions offered by Groundforce and have gone on strike.

ANA washes its hands of the matter, saying proudly that despite the strike no flights have been cancelled. Groundforce explains that operations have not been significantly hit by the strike.

Of course operations have not been significantly hit. With an average baggage delivery time of 45 minutes without a strike, what's an extra 15-30 minutes to your long-suffering passenger? And what about the other statistic aired this weekend: "Within Europe, TAP is second only to British Airways in the number of lost bags." I hope that's a percentage measure, not an absolute figure. Imagine if TAP managed to lose as many bags as BA, which is immeasureably larger! Of course, the lost bags are TAP's fault, not ANA or Groundforce. I think not.

State-owned monopolies. Don't you just love them? Looks like we'll have to suffer. At least we can make a quick buck on the shares when the privatisation goes through.