End of vacation at the airport: busy streets and long lines

While they end in Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein, the autumn holidays in Lower Saxony and Bremen are only just beginning. That demands patience from travelers at the weekend - both at the airport and on the streets around Hamburg.

Hamburg - The autumn holidays in Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein ended at the weekend with queues of cars on the streets and people queuing at the airport.

"In the high phase in the early afternoon we had up to twelve kilometers of traffic jams on the A1 between the Norderelbe and the Hamburg-Ost junction," said a police spokesman on Sunday.

In the opposite direction and also on the A7 between Volkspark and Elbtunnel, it was jammed for up to seven kilometers.

The queues of cars were only due to a high volume of traffic, major accidents did not occur on Sunday, said the spokesman.

As early as Saturday, drivers had to be patient on the highways around Hamburg.

At the end of the holidays in Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein and the start of the autumn holidays in Lower Saxony and Bremen, there were long traffic jams, especially on the motorways heading north.

On Saturday afternoon, the traffic on Autobahn 1 between Hittfeld and Norderelbe had accumulated for 16 kilometers, as a police spokesman for the German Press Agency said on Saturday.

On the A7 between Fleestedt and the Elbe Tunnel, the cars drove bumper to bumper for around 14 kilometers.

That also has something to do with the bed swap in Denmark, which is usually on Saturdays.

Many Lower Saxony who are now starting their vacation are therefore on their way north.

"The Elbe tunnel is the bottleneck."

The people at Hamburg Airport also felt the effects of the start of the holidays in Lower Saxony and Bremen.

Already on Saturday there were long queues and longer waiting times when handling passengers, especially in the early hours of the morning, said a spokeswoman.

It is a matter of individual peaks in a period of one to two hours in the morning.

The rush at Hamburg Airport was again high on Sunday.

“Very busy with full terminals in the first wave in the early morning, when all the planes take off for the first time in the direction of the sun.

Then again a little quieter, "said the spokeswoman on Sunday in Hamburg.

Compared to the previous day, however, there was already a little less going on.

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In view of the queues at other German airports, the industry association ADV stated that they and the service companies were in a special situation.

"After months of almost complete standstill of air traffic due to the corona pandemic, the significantly increasing passenger numbers at the beginning of the holiday season lead at times to capacity bottlenecks at individual locations," said ADV CEO Ralph Beisel.

Among other things, the pandemic-related obligations to provide evidence slowed down the processes, and short-time work ensures staff shortages.

The autumn holidays are also one of the busiest times of the year.

At the weekend there were around 130 take-offs and 130 landings in Hamburg on both days.

This means that around 30,000 passengers pass through the airport every day.

After this last stronger autumn weekend, the level should unfortunately go down again, said the spokeswoman on Saturday.

Travelers were asked in advance to be at the airport at least two hours before departure or to check in via the Internet.

So far, it has usually worked well at Hamburg Airport, said the spokeswoman.

“You have to say: the passengers are very, very well prepared, and they usually have a lot of understanding and patience.” Dpa