Railway and airports
Christmas traffic started quietly
Travelers on Christmas Eve with their luggage at the main train station in Bremen. Photo: Hauke-Christian Dittrich / dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
Even in the corona pandemic, more people are out and about at Christmas than usual. Nevertheless, it was initially calm on the rails and in the air.
At Deutsche Bahn and at the airports in Berlin and Frankfurt am Main, Christmas travel began without any problems, according to the companies.
“Despite some weather-related disruptions in northern Germany, rail traffic was generally quiet,” said a spokeswoman for the group. As expected, on Thursday, the first day of vacation in most federal states, more travelers used the Deutsche Bahn trains.
The railway had expected a particularly large number of travelers on the Thursday before the holidays and on the Monday after the holidays. According to a spokesman, the booking numbers are higher than last year, but still 35 to 40 percent below the pre-Corona level.
This year there are a good 550,000 seats in Christmas traffic – 50,000 more than a year ago. From Wednesday to January 2, Deutsche Bahn has been using special trains on connections that are in high demand, for example between Berlin and Stuttgart or Munich and between Cologne, Düsseldorf and Berlin.
Passengers must prove that they have been vaccinated against Covid-19, have recovered from it or have been tested for the coronavirus. Children up to six years of age are exempt from this. For older pupils, this only applies during school hours.
According to a spokeswoman, Christmas traffic also started “calmly and steadily” at the capital city airport BER. 43,000 passengers were counted on Thursday, said the spokeswoman. 45,000 were expected. Thursday was the first day of vacation in the capital as well. Today 36,000 passengers were expected.
The airport company expects a bigger crowd again on January 2nd, the last day of the holiday in Berlin and Brandenburg. Again around 45,000 passengers are expected. For comparison: on the peak days during the autumn holidays, around 60,000 passengers traveled via BER. There were long queues, mainly due to staff shortages and more complex check-in processes during the pandemic.
At Frankfurt Airport, there was initially still brisk travel activity until Friday noon, and higher passenger numbers were also expected for the Christmas holidays, as a spokesman for the airport operator Fraport said. “Everything went without any problems on the day before Christmas, and we are expecting things to go well for the passengers on the Christmas days as well.” According to the spokesman, it was also possible to comply with the applicable distance regulations, for example at the check-in counters or the baggage carousels.