Status: 09.10.2021 6:03 p.m.
At several German airports today, vacationers needed strong nerves: Long queues formed in front of counters, and travelers reported chaotic conditions. The airport operators explain this with Corona, among other things.
At the start of the autumn holidays in several federal states, long queues formed at several German airports in Germany. At Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER), for example, the rush in front of the counters was unusually large in the morning. Videos on social media showed people waiting across the check-in halls. There was also a lot going on in Frankfurt and Hamburg.
According to rbb reported travelers in Berlin of chaotic conditions. Several people wrote on social networks that they would miss their planes because of the massive crowds in front of the check-in counters. A lack of information was also complained about.
Sometimes waiting times of hours
An airport spokesman confirmed to the dpa news agency that there was “massive rush until around 9.30 am”, with waiting times that sometimes lasted for hours. It cannot be ruled out that some of them may not have reached their plane. In the early afternoon, according to a dpa reporter, it was already quieter in the airport building.
A high number of passengers is expected again for Sunday, the spokesman said. It is becoming noticeable that more and more vaccinated people now want to go on vacation again. Therefore, a large number of visitors can still be expected.
The reason for the long queues were therefore bottlenecks at the check-ins. In Corona times, the processes would take significantly longer, for example because of the control of vaccination passports. The airport spokesman appealed to travelers: “Be there two hours early.” When checking in, holidaymakers should have their papers and vaccination card to hand immediately to keep waiting times short.
“Keep documents at hand at all times”
The operator of Frankfurt Airport, Fraport, made a similar statement. Because of the many special corona regulations, he recommended careful travel preparation and “keep all necessary documents to hand at all times”. Frankfurt Airport also had a large number of visitors at the start of the autumn break in Hesse. The terminals are well filled, there could be occasional waiting times, said a spokesman.
According to the official city portal hamburg.de, there were occasional queues at the check-in at the airport in Hamburg – here the holidays started earlier. According to a spokeswoman for the airport, the number of air travelers accumulates in the early morning and on the weekend in a few hours during the autumn break. However, this quickly dissolves again afterwards. With passenger numbers of around 30,000 people per day, the airport experiences the strongest rush since the beginning of the pandemic on the autumn holiday weekends.
At Cologne / Bonn Airport, however, the start of the vacation in North Rhine-Westphalia went off without any major problems, according to a spokesman. Occasionally there is a waiting time of a few minutes at the security controls, but overall it is a normal holiday operation. Most recently, the two largest NRW airports Düsseldorf and Cologne / Bonn had warned of possible delays during the holidays due to the special regulations in the corona pandemic.