Frankfurt If you want to travel by plane in the coming days, you should bring a lot of time and patience. There is a shortage of staff everywhere, and aviation managers have been warning of bottlenecks for months. But only now, at the beginning of the Easter travel season, does the full extent of the problems become apparent. In the best case, passengers have to wait longer, in the worst case, their flight is canceled altogether.
Lufthansa, for example, wants to cancel a single-digit number of domestic flights. Fewer flights make room for handling the remaining connections. Domestically, customers are also most likely to switch to the train.
Other airlines will probably also take individual connections out of the plan. The airport operator Fraport expects some cancellations. There was no other way, flight operations had to be stabilized overall.
Passengers traveling with the holiday airlines Tuifly or Condor could still get off relatively lightly. All flights would take off as planned, including in Frankfurt, both said. Nevertheless, there could be waiting times at the security checks, Tui warns. It is best for customers to be at the airport at least two and a half hours in advance.
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It may be irritating that, despite the early and numerous warnings from industry representatives, chaos is imminent with the first major travel wave of the year. Finally it was time to prepare for the situation. But it’s not that simple in aviation.
During the pandemic, many employees working at airports have turned their backs on the industry entirely. The experts from the airport association ADV assume that there is a shortage of 20 percent of the staff in the ground handling services – they load and unload the aircraft, for example – and in the security services.
A difficult job market and lengthy training courses make it difficult to find a quick solution
Many aviation companies tried to keep their employees during the crisis with short-time work benefits. But in view of the comparatively low wage level, even increased short-time work benefits were often not enough to finance the previous standard of living, Fraport boss Stefan Schulte recently told the Handelsblatt. The employees went of their own accord.
Finding a replacement is difficult. “Like other industries, we are also encountering an extremely difficult job market,” says Schulte. At the largest German hub in Frankfurt alone, the operator is looking for around 1,000 employees this year. Fraport has only found 300 so far.
>>Read about this: Fraport boss warns of bottlenecks in summer: “In an emergency, you have to be at the airport 30 minutes earlier”
In addition, those that the company was able to hire are not immediately operational. The personnel in the security area first have to be trained for a longer period of time. Although these training courses are running at full speed in Frankfurt, it takes time.
Late mornings and early afternoons are particularly problematic. Experience has shown that this is when Frankfurt has the most take-offs and landings. In total, Fraport expects around 170,000 travelers a day around Easter, plus around 1100 take-offs and landings per day. For many of the passengers, the health certificates and other documents would have to be checked because of Corona. This is an additional burden, according to the airport operator.
Munich Airport also warns of longer waiting times due to the high volume of traffic and the verification of vaccination and test certificates, for example. “Passengers are therefore recommended to plan a corresponding time buffer for their arrival and, if possible, to check in online before departure,” the airport said.
Once the passengers have made it through the controls at the airport and are sitting on the plane, there is a risk of new problems. There are also bottlenecks in airspace control. Firstly, the French air traffic control DSNA installed a new system for northern France at the beginning of the month. As always in such cases, this is first slowly ramped up to full load. Until then, part of the traffic will be relocated to German airspace. This puts a strain on German air traffic control, which has already warned of delays.
In addition, the German controllers get additional work from Polish colleagues, the local air traffic control is also struggling with personnel problems. In addition to all this, the European air traffic control authorities also have to deal with the extra work involved in the diversions that have to be flown because of the war in Ukraine. After all: So far, according to DFS, the controllers have been able to cope well with the situation.
Aletta von Massenbach, the head of Berlin Airport BER, pointed out another problem a few days ago: Corona. “If there are also absences in the already tense personnel situation, there may be delays,” warned the manager. The omicron wave continues to roll across the land. Employees have to go into quarantine again and again.
Ryanair boss calls for the use of the military for controls
Great Britain and Ireland give a foretaste of what could still happen. Airlines such as Easyjet and British Airways have canceled numerous flights there in the past few days. Many flights will probably also be canceled around Easter. All corona measures have been dropped in Great Britain, and a large number of people are currently becoming infected there. British Airways and Easyjet are complaining about an unusually high level of sick leave.
In Dublin, long queues have been forming at the airport for days because there are problems with the check-in process. Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary was so angry a few days ago that he even called for the military to be used in security checks.
It’s not that far in Germany yet. The airlines promise to keep the situation under control as much as possible. For example, Lufthansa wants to increase the staff at the counters and gates. It is also recommended that you take the opportunity to upload your corona documents in advance for the check. This is possible from 72 hours before departure.
More: The 2022 flight year will be rough: passengers will still need a lot of patience for the time being