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Tessa Müller, traveler:
"Our flight was cancelled."
Chiara Bonvisutte, traveler:
"I've just checked in my suitcase, got my boarding pass, and then I got an email from Eurowings, the flight was cancelled.
And now we've been standing here for an hour, waiting.
I'm pissed."
Tessa Müller, traveller:
"We've been in the same place for an hour, nothing's happening here!"
Chiara Bonvisutte, traveller:
»Take extra leave!«
Holiday start in North Rhine-Westphalia, the Düsseldorf airport is completely overloaded.
Chiara Bonvisutte, traveller:
»And nothing happens there.
So they only work with one person, two people, I don't know.
eat cake, what do I know.
Well, I'm really pissed."
German airports have been lacking staff for smooth processes for weeks, especially at security checks.
According to the Verdi union, the high workload also led to a high level of sick leave among the remaining employees.
That is currently 20 percent, so in Düsseldorf there is a lack of up to 140 inspectors per shift.
But the airlines also lack staff to handle all flights.
Tessa Müller, traveller:
»Well, we've already been offered a new flight.
Tomorrow 7.30 a.m. from here to Munich with a six-hour layover and then 6 p.m. in Catania, but..."
Chiara Bonvisutte, traveller:
»We have already paid money for the way here, 60 euros by taxi.
We are trainees, we don't have that much money to say: Okay, come on, take a taxi back home, sleep there for a bit and tomorrow 60 euros back here.
That will not do!
I'll definitely sue them if I can't find anything.
I do not care."
As the weekend progresses, airport operators expect long queues to continue.
From Düsseldorf alone, 200,000 people want to start their vacation by Sunday.
The airlines warn that some could miss their flights because of the waiting times.
Traveler:
»The concern is very big.
But in the end your hands are tied.
You can only try to arrive early.
We did.
Now we have to see how things go.«
The wait is still civilized.
Operators and the federal police are preparing for de-escalation operations.
Last year there were riots at the start of the holiday season at Düsseldorf Airport.