Association complains about bureaucracy in Germany

Berlin Hours of waiting, traffic jams in the airport halls – in summer it was the passengers who suffered from the lack of staff at the airports. After the corona pandemic subsided, the air freight industry is now complaining about the situation at German airports. The reason here too: an excess of bureaucracy.

“It is to be feared that we will run into a personnel problem with our eyes wide open,” warns Claus Wagner, who represents the Association of Air Cargo Dispatchers in Germany (VACAD) as Chairman of the Board. “As a result, air freight could become a bottleneck for the German economy,” he fears. In the end, this hinders foreign trade.

The Frankfurt-based association, to which airlines such as Air Canada and the handling specialist Wisag belong, as well as the handling companies of almost all major commercial airports, criticizes a whole series of tightened regulations. In the eyes of air freight providers, this increases the annoyance.

One of them: As of recently, clerks can only process customs documents or freight logs in the operating locations approved by the Luftfahrt-Bundesamt (LBA). Home office is hardly possible anymore.

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In addition, changed regulations sometimes lead to questionable working methods, for example when handling air freight goods such as adhesives, pharmaceutical additives or vacuum-packed food, the safety of which is difficult to control due to the sealed containers.

Control abroad without gain in security

Until 2019, the Federal Aviation Authority allowed shippers to check such goods for possible explosive residues by wiping the surface of the packaging. The residues on the rag were analyzed using a special electronic trace detection device. Now it is over. The authority of the Federal Ministry of Transport abolished the so-called special control procedure, which Germany’s airports had practiced for decades without any incident.

Air freight handler Claus Wagner

Bureaucracy creates bottlenecks.

Photo: FCS Frankfurt Cargo Services

“In particular, due to their volume and especially their density, large barrels cannot yet be checked with sufficient accuracy using the technologies or processes currently permitted in Germany,” the Luftfahrt-Bundesamt explained to the Handelsblatt when asked about its change of heart. The Braunschweig flight attendants did not name an alternative. The succinct answer: not all freight items are suitable for air transport in terms of being able to be reliably checked.

The freight, which is said not to be checked, still starts from German airports. “According to information from our member companies, 50 to 70 trucks commute daily from Germany to the airports in Strasbourg, Liège or Metz, where such special control procedures are still in place,” reports Reinhard Lankes, who takes care of air freight at the German Freight Forwarding Association DSLV. “Because the safety certificate issued there is valid throughout the EU and therefore also in Germany.”

Some of the barrels and packaging with the allegedly uncontrollable goods then travel back to Germany, where they take off from the runway without any legal objections – and probably without any security gains either. “Despite numerous inquiries in the neighboring EU countries, we were not given any new technology that would enable improved controls there,” reports Lankes.

In addition, the air freight shippers are running out of employees due to the immobility of the authorities. “People interested in working from abroad may only apply if they can prove that they are resident in Germany,” says VACAD Managing Director Wagner. “But then the security check alone in Germany takes another four to six weeks.” During this time, foreign applicants in Germany would have to wait without maintenance for a decision, which hardly anyone could afford.

Germany’s neighboring countries prove that there is another way. “One of our employees is currently helping out in Belgium,” says Claus Wagner, who in his main job manages the Fraport subsidiary Frankfurt Cargo (FCS) Services. “The check there was completed after two days, even though the borrowed colleague is from Australia.”

In Germany, on the other hand, the background check is drowning in the turmoil of federalism. “The implementation is the responsibility of the state aviation authorities, i.e. the federal states,” it says in Braunschweig, “not the Federal Aviation Office.” The result: Anyone who has a license in North Rhine-Westphalia must apply for it a second time in Hesse if necessary.

Craftsmen need an escort

The LBA, on the other hand, blames the EU for another bureaucratic mess that will make operations more difficult for air freight handlers from next year. More precisely, the “Numbers 6.3.2.9 and 6.4.2.1 of the Commission Implementing Regulation (DVO) (EU) 2022/1174 of July 07, 2022 amending DVO (EU) 2015/1998 laying down detailed measures for the implementation of the common Basic standards for aviation security”.

Behind the jumble of regulations is an obligation, for example for electricians or plumbers who repair lights and heaters in air cargo hangars: Before starting work, according to the will of the LBA, they should complete extensive safety training, which also applies to the cleaning staff. Without a certificate, every craftsman needs personal factory support. Accordingly, air freight handlers who do not want to afford such double staffing fear that they will be left empty-handed in future tenders among cleaning and repair service providers.

“At the Federal Aviation Office, the EU regulations are implemented in a particularly formal legal manner,” DSLV air freight expert Lankes has been observing for years. “In the neighboring EU countries, there are therefore far fewer problems with the specifications from Brussels.” The industry, which transported 5.4 million tons of air freight throughout Germany last year, is threatened with exodus in parts.

More: Lucrative air freight business heading for turbulence.

source site-18