Airports lack staff. This leads to chaos and canceled flights.
(Photo: AP)
Frankfurt In April, 6.6 percent fewer people were employed in passenger transport than a year ago, as the Federal Statistical Office announced on Wednesday for preliminary data. Compared to the level before the corona pandemic in April 2019, it was even 11.3 percent less. “The number of employees in this industry fell in April 2022 to the lowest value since the beginning of the time series in 2015.” The statisticians did not give any specific figures.
The lack of staff at airports, ground service providers, security companies and airlines is currently causing chaotic conditions at German airports. According to the IW Institute, there is a shortage of 7,200 employees in aviation. As a result, there are long waiting times, delays and flight cancellations.
Airport chaos will continue
Despite all efforts to recruit more staff, the airport operator Fraport does not expect the tense situation at Germany’s largest airport, Frankfurt, to improve in the short term. “The problem will not get any smaller going forward, even though we are hiring. I say that very openly,” said Fraport boss Stefan Schulte at a press conference on Tuesday evening in Frankfurt.
The current massive disruption to operations due to a lack of workers will continue for the next two or three months. After the cancellations, which Lufthansa in particular made as the main provider in Frankfurt, further flights would probably have to be removed from the program.
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After cutting around 4,000 employees during the pandemic, Fraport has already hired almost 1,000 new employees for ground services. According to Schulte, even if a few hundred new employees or temporary workers from abroad were deployed, the situation would not improve. Because of the high burden of overtime, extra and night shifts, an increasing number of sick days in the summer is to be expected.
Apart from that, the wave of corona infections is making itself felt. At 15 percent, the sickness rate in ground handling services is currently a few percentage points higher than usual. At the same time, the very busy travel months with the start of the holidays in Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate at the end of July are still ahead of Frankfurt Airport.
Fraport boss admits wrong planning
There, especially at baggage claim, there are waiting times of two hours more. Because Fraport prioritizes handling for departing and transferring passengers. “That annoys us the most,” said Schulte, who, like other board members and around 150 administrative employees at Fraport, is currently helping with the work on the airport apron.
“We apologize for this because it is very difficult for many passengers at the moment,” said Schulte. However, it is now difficult to start up the very complex work-sharing system at the airport again in such a short time. The strength of the demand for travel exceeded the optimistic expectations of Fraport and many others. Instead of the expected 70 to 75 percent of the pre-crisis level, it is currently 80 to 85 percent in some cases.
At peak times, the rush is as high as before the pandemic. “That surprised us. I openly admit that we were wrong.”
A lot of staff migrated to other industries during the pandemic
The federal government is helping aviation with accelerated administrative procedures, so that temporary assistants from Turkey, for example, can help with baggage handling at airports. The industry is hoping for 1,500 to 2,000 people, most of whom could be deployed from August. However, this is likely to be too late for the holiday business at many airports.
According to the statistics office, sales in passenger transport in aviation increased by 360 percent in April 2022 compared to the same month last year. During the pandemic, air traffic was severely restricted, the number of passengers dropped significantly and sales plummeted. The number of airport employees fell sharply during this time, and many people migrated to other sectors – such as logistics, which benefited from the booming online trade.
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