Chaos at Munich Airport: Travelers fly without luggage - thousands of suitcases lie around
Created: 07/01/2022 05:17
By: Dirk Walter
The chaos at Munich Airport is coming to a head.
Some travelers need to fly without their luggage.
Now the federal government even wants to fly in foreign aid workers.
Munich – Several thousand pieces of luggage and suitcases have been left behind at Munich Airport, some for days.
They come from transfer passengers who use Munich Airport as a hub and fly on.
The airport confirms that the handling staff cannot keep up with the loading and unloading of the machines in individual cases.
Munich Airport: Travelers fly without luggage
On the apron of Terminal 1 and in a neighboring hall, trolleys have been jammed to the brim with suitcases for the past few days.
This was also noticed by employees of Flughafen GmbH (FMG), who
sent photos to
Merkur .
It is said that there is a lack of staff at the handlers.
"People keep flying, but without their luggage," says one worker.
“There is chaos there.” A Munich actress also reports a “complete loss of control” at the airport.
The airport does not want to confirm staff shortages.
There is currently no "staff gap", says airport spokesman Ingo Anspach.
The loading and unloading of the machines has been delegated to two companies: The FMG subsidiary Aeroground with a good 2000 employees, including around 1700 handlers, reduced staff during the Corona crisis.
Nevertheless, it still has 85 percent of the workforce compared to the pre-crisis level, says Anspach.
The number of flights is currently less than 80 percent of the pre-crisis level.
The company Swissport Losch is also commissioned with aircraft handling - the company is said to have significant problems.
Chaos at Munich Airport: the government wants to fly in helpers
There is a fire under the roof, so to speak, not only at Munich Airport.
After reports of chaos at a number of German airports, the federal government wants to fly in foreign aid workers, especially from Turkey.
Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD) said yesterday that they should be paid according to tariffs and housed “humanely”.
Knowledge of German is not necessary, but because of the security relevance, a strict background check is essential, as Interior Minister Nancy Faeser explained.
But Munich Airport cannot wait for helpers to arrive from abroad.
External companies such as the service provider Wisag are said to be stepping in at short notice.
All of European air traffic is "impaired by significant irregularities in operational processes," says FMG spokesman Ingo Anspach.
Aeroground also has its limits.
Flight delays could mean "that there is no staff available for a certain load at short notice," he says.
In order to avoid further delays, the airline decides in individual cases "that the plane only takes off with the passengers on board and without luggage".
The Munich lawyer Stefan Kastel experienced such a case last Friday, who took off for Budapest on a Lufthansa plane - without knowing that his suitcase was staying in Munich.
Several thousand pieces of luggage at Munich Airport
This is how suitcases are jammed at Terminal 1. It is "true that larger amounts of luggage are currently being stored in Munich for further processing," confirms the spokesman.
Even more: Munich is also a kind of interim storage for "several thousand pieces of luggage" from other airports that are flown to Erdinger Moos, "so that central processing can take place from the Munich hub".
also read
“The parents interfered too often”
Flight chaos in Munich: Lufthansa plane takes off without suitcases and hand luggage – “just curious”
In order to be prepared for the future, Aeroground wants to hire staff.
Spokesman Anspach reports of "intensive recruitment measures".
Critics say, however, that the airport must increase wages - and refer to Frankfurt Airport, which has just approved 14 percent more money and a one-time payment of 700 euros for the 3,500 employees of the ground handling services of the Fraport subsidiary Fraground.
(
dw
)
