I have another method. Let everyone go during covid and then attempt to re-hire them all on less generous terms after the fact. Looking at you DUB (and no doubt many others).
Yet still the UK holiday companies are endlessly pimping last minute summer deals with the knowledge that flights through July and August are going to be totally messed up.
People now have to wait for hours, hundreds of flights are cancelled daily and they still refuse to pay a reasonable wage. Of course the CEO blames everything on others and allots himself a big bonus as usual.
And society bailed out these guys in a big way during Corona... Next time we should just let them fall.
Compare this to busses and trains who got furlough PLUS a very generous package to cover nearly all of their running costs.
The furlough scheme allowed companies to keep employees without having to pay them (they were paid by government). If airlines and airports were so short-sighted to still layoff plenty of staff then they should now be made to bear the full cost.
There really wasn't an option for many airlines and airports to continue furloughing everyone, they simply didn't have the cash to do so.
Ryanair did have the cash and they didn't lay anyone off to my knowledge - and hence are having way better performance than nearly anyone else in Europe (they also have their own airport ground crews at many airports).
How executives get away with these decisions... and it's Europe wide situation if not worldwide. Of course from the perspective of executives the COVID era was a success because they fetched government bailouts, then diluted the companies' shares. Great success! bonuses followed.