Enlarge image
Long queues at Hamburg Airport (on Sunday): improvement is not in sight any time soon
Photo: Axel Heimken / dpa
The conditions at many German airports are currently chaotic;
there are long waiting times, delays and canceled flights.
The reason for this is a blatant shortage of staff: the number of employees at airports in Germany has recently fallen to its lowest level for at least seven years.
In April, 6.6 percent fewer people were employed in passenger transport than a year ago, according to the Federal Statistical Office based on preliminary data.
Compared to the level before the corona pandemic in April 2019, it was even 11.3 percent less.
"The number of people employed in this industry fell in April 2022 to its lowest value since the beginning of the time series in 2015," according to the official statisticians.
They did not give specific numbers.
According to the German Economic Institute (IW), around 7,200 employees are missing in aviation.
The airlines, which were actually targeting the pre-crisis level due to the strong demand for vacation and travel, now have to massively withdraw flights from the program.
This is intended to stabilize processes at the airports.
The federal government wants to help aviation with accelerated administrative procedures.
Temporary assistants, for example from Turkey, are to help with baggage handling at the airports.
The industry is hoping for 1,500 to 2,000 people, most of whom could be deployed from August.
However, this is likely to be too late for the holiday business at many airports.
For example, the operator Fraport does not expect the tense situation at Germany's largest airport, Frankfurt, to improve in the short term.
“The problem won't get any smaller going forward, even though we're hiring.
I'll say that very openly," says Fraport boss Stefan Schulte.
The current massive disruption to operations due to a lack of workers will continue for the next two or three months.
After the cancellations, which Lufthansa in particular made as the main provider in Frankfurt, more flights would probably have to be removed from the program.
After cutting around 4,000 employees during the pandemic, Fraport has hired almost 1,000 new employees for ground services.
According to Schulte, even if a few hundred new employees or temporary workers from abroad were deployed, the situation would not improve.
Because of the high burden of overtime, extra and night shifts, an increasing number of sick days in the summer is to be expected.
In addition, the renewed wave of corona infections is making itself felt.
The sickness rate in ground handling services is currently 15 percent, a few percentage points higher than usual.
At the same time, the busiest travel months with the start of the holidays in Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate at the end of July are still ahead of Frankfurt Airport.
There are waiting times of two hours and more, especially at baggage claim.
Because Fraport prioritizes handling for departing and transferring passengers.
"That annoys us the most," said Schulte, who, like other board members and around 150 Fraport administrative employees, is currently helping with the work on the airport apron.
"We apologize because it is very difficult for many passengers at the moment."
But it is difficult to get the very complex, work-sharing system at the airport up and running again in such a short time.
The strength of the demand for travel exceeded the optimistic expectations of Fraport and many others.
Instead of the expected 70 to 75 percent of the pre-crisis level, it is currently 80 to 85 percent in some cases.
At peak times, the rush is as high as before the pandemic.
“That surprised us.
I openly admit that we were wrong,« says Schulte.
fdi/Reuters