The situation at German airports will probably remain chaotic in the summer. Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) does not expect the situation to improve any time soon. Numerous flights will continue to be canceled and delayed at the airports. “The situation in the European air traffic system is an enormous challenge for everyone,” said Wissing picture on sunday. The shortage of skilled workers is increasingly affecting people’s everyday lives. Short-term solutions are unlikely.
CSU traffic expert Ulrich Lange criticized Wissing sharply: “He can’t just duck and shrug his shoulders and leave people alone with the traffic chaos that the traffic lights are partly to blame for.” According to the deputy Verdi chairman Christine Behle, who is also deputy chairman of the supervisory board at Lufthansa, the situation will worsen. “Summer will be chaotic,” said Behle Augsburg General. The cause is the forced European competition at the airports and the associated savings in personnel costs of 30 to 40 percent through outsourcing and tariff evasion.
The lockdown at the airports during the corona pandemic also led to short-time work and layoffs at service providers, and employees also looked for other jobs. This staff is now massively lacking, when the number of bookings is increasing significantly again. “It will be dramatic,” warned Behle.
The chairwoman of the Association of Independent Travel Agencies (VUSR), Marija Linnhoff, described the conditions at German airports as “simply unbelievable”. The desire to travel is not surprising, but two years of staff cuts are now taking their revenge, she said picture on sunday. So close to the summer season, the worst must be expected. The airlines are defending themselves. “The governments decided at very short notice to lift the travel restrictions,” said Matthias von Randow, CEO of the German Aviation Association (BDL). Therefore, there was no reliable planning for the staffing for the resumption of traffic.
For weeks there have been massive problems at Germany’s airports due to a lack of staff in the industry. Lufthansa alone wants to cancel 900 flights in Munich and Frankfurt in July. “The most important thing in this situation is that more staff is recruited quickly and that services are provided by the airport companies themselves and that the employees are employed there,” demanded trade unionist Behle. According to Verdi, the lack of staff in all service areas on the ground, such as security control, check-in and baggage handling, is particularly bad for the large airports such as Frankfurt, Hamburg, Berlin and Düsseldorf. Munich also lacks staff, but the situation there is better because the security personnel are not employed by a private company, but by a state-owned company that pays according to the public service tariff.