Airport chaos in Europe: Where is it fast - and where not? 

Created: 07/13/2022, 12:46 p.m

By: Franziska Kaindl

For many Germans, vacations currently begin with long queues at the airport, lost luggage or canceled flights.

But where is it particularly chaotic?

A state of emergency has been in force at German airports for a few weeks now - and that could continue for some time, as the credit insurer Allianz Trade believes in a study.

The airlines would try to make up for the losses from the corona pandemic.

However, as long as fuel costs continue to rise, there is little incentive to increase personnel costs.

And the aviation industry is particularly short of staff.

Nevertheless, there are also countries in Europe where airport operations are currently running smoothly.

We have compiled an overview of which these are and which are not.

Italy without flight chaos: airports well prepared for tourists

Although the number of passengers is not yet at the level before the corona pandemic, Italy currently has the slowly rising flood of summer holidaymakers well under control, as the head of the civil aviation authority (ENAC), Pierluigi Di Palma, reports to the Ansa news agency.

The state provided financial support totaling 800 million euros, also in the form of short-time work benefits.

In this way, a number of staff could be retained.

Things are going particularly well in Rome Fiumicino: Here the

, according to the

.

This is because the security team works directly at the airport and is not commissioned by outside companies.

Nobody was released from it during the corona pandemic.

The same picture is currently emerging at many European airports: long queues in the departure halls.

But in some countries things are different.

© Mark Thomas/Imago

Few cancellations at Spanish airports

In Spain, too, travelers currently have to expect queues and delays - but not to the same extent as in Germany.

They stem from the

, and the

also played its part.

Unlike in this country, there is

in Spain .

This is thanks to the so-called ERTE, an instrument of Spanish labor law.

It allows companies to suspend employment contracts for a set period of time - which is why not so many people have been laid off during the pandemic.

But the big chaos could still come: Spanish air traffic controllers criticize the poor pay and shortage of staff, like them

reports.

There are already strikes in France because of this.

Normal flight operations in Greece – but things could get critical in the summer

In Athens, too,

during the corona pandemic

.

For the past two months, more staff have been hired again, but it is still difficult to fill the gaps, according to Christos Karagiannis from the trade union federation OPAM.

pays off

from what it seems: The problems at the airports in Greece are limited.

A spokesman for Athens Airport Eleftherios Venizielos told the German Press Agency (dpa) that security checks and baggage handling were running normally.

If problems and delays do occur, it is mainly due to delayed flights from Germany and Great Britain.

If the number of tourists increases in July and August, the bottlenecks could also become more noticeable in Greece.

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Flight chaos in Europe: hardly any bottlenecks in Turkey

If you have planned a holiday in Turkey, apart from the departure in Germany, you do not have to

expect

According to the German Press Agency, Hava-Sen, the union for aviation workers, explains that there are no staff shortages at Turkish airports.

This was also confirmed by spokesmen for Turkish Airlines and Istanbul Airport.

Even before the pandemic, there was more of an oversupply of staff, added Hava Sen boss Seckin Kocak.

Delays only occur because of a high volume of travel, but not because of a lack of staff.

Employees were deliberately retained, and only a few were able to migrate to other industries because there aren't that many other jobs, according to the

.

Lack of staff and strikes: France with long waiting times and cancellations

Are you planning a trip to France?

Then you should be prepared to

.

, there are 4,000 vacancies

at Paris airports alone .

Both the ground staff and the airlines themselves lack employees.

In addition, there are recurring strikes due to poor working conditions and low wages.

According to dpa, around ten percent of departures and landings at Charles-de-Gaulle Airport had to be canceled recently.

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Great Britain sinks into flight chaos: what's next?

Along with Germany, Great Britain is currently the prime example of the flight chaos in Europe.

Long queues have regularly formed at airports for baggage handling and security checks in recent weeks

.

British Airways alone canceled more than 10,000 short-haul flights by the end of October, according to the dpa.

Easyjet is even completely suspending flights from Great Britain to Hurghada in Egypt until the end of July.

Now London Heathrow Airport has even announced that it will introduce an upper limit of 100,000 passengers per day from now until the end of September.

Airlines are now said to stop selling tickets for this period.

The lack of staff that arose as a result of the corona pandemic is also to blame for the chaos.

Extensive security checks for new hires also make it difficult to recruit new staff.

, London Mayor Sadiq Khan

blames Brexit for the current situation, as it would keep important workers out of the EU.

Transport Minister Grand Shapps, on the other hand, sees the problem with the heads of the aviation industry, who, in his opinion, have reacted too late to the increasing number of passengers.

There is no improvement in sight for the time being: British Airways employees want to go on strike in the summer because of wage cuts.