Traffic
Start of the summer holidays – rush at Hamburg Airport
Air travelers stand in front of the check-in counters in Terminal 1 at Hamburg Airport. With the start of the summer holidays in Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Hamburg, the airport in the Hanseatic city is expecting a rush of passengers. Photo: Christian Charisius/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
Pupils in Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania start their holidays. There are already long queues at Hamburg Airport on Friday morning. Many travelers are also expected on the roads towards the coast.
Two northern German federal states are starting their school holidays, and families in North Rhine-Westphalia are approaching the second week of vacation – the waiting times at the airports are sometimes long.
At Hamburg Airport, some people had to wait longer early Friday morning – according to the federal police, as early as 4:30 a.m. up to 60 minutes before security checks.
It was a busy travel day with 45,000 arrivals and departures, said a spokeswoman for Hamburg Airport on Friday morning. Due to the high volume, the airport opened the terminals at 3:15 a.m. and the check-in counters at 3:30 a.m. In the morning, many families had already flown on vacation. Waiting times are expected to continue during the course of the day, although additional emergency services have already come to the airport to work.
Technical staff warning strike
The simultaneous strike by the technical staff has so far had no effect on airport operations, the airport spokeswoman emphasized. Employees of a maintenance company responsible for maintaining the technology in baggage handling, the runways and other technical infrastructure have gone on a one-day warning strike. 30 to 40 employees on the early shift answered the call on Friday before 6.30 a.m., hopefully there would be even more, said Verdi union secretary Lars Stubbe in the morning.
In Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the students have their last day of school this Friday – then the summer holidays start in the two northern states. In North Rhine-Westphalia, the second holiday wave was expected on Friday.
Full roads and traffic jams expected
According to the ADAC, it could be even more crowded on the motorways than last weekend. The highest potential for congestion is at the weekend on the routes towards the North and Baltic Sea coasts and on the way to the south. The ADAC expects the roads to be full, especially on Friday afternoon, Saturday morning and Sunday afternoon. From the perspective of the automobile club, the truck holiday driving ban, which will apply every Saturday from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. from this Saturday until the end of August, promises some relief.
On the other hand, a slight relaxation is possible at the large airports in Düsseldorf and Cologne: the number of passengers on Saturday and Sunday at both airports should be slightly below those of the first holiday weekend. Rail traffic is expected to be crowded, especially on Friday, when commuters and holidaymakers meet on the trains, as a railway spokesman said.
On the first NRW holiday weekend, the heavy rush and a computer malfunction in the baggage handling system at Düsseldorf Airport caused chaotic conditions at times. Even the Düsseldorf airport fire brigade spontaneously helped out with the luggage.