Will Germany manage to tackle its airport chaos this summer?

What's going on?

There have been warnings about impending flight chaos over the summer holidays for several weeks now following nightmarish scenes at airports over the Whitsun weekend. 

On Friday, when schools in the populous state of North-Rhine Westphalia broke up for the summer, those fears appeared to be have been realised. 

As The Local reported on Monday, airports in the region have struggled to cope with the sudden surge in passenger numbers. Holidaymakers were forced to wait for hours just to clear security at Düsseldorf and Cologne airports and there were reports of mix-ups at the baggage reclaim stations.

Hundreds of passengers were also sent home from Düsseldorf airport on Saturday evening without their bags and asked to return the next day to collect them. 

To make matters worse, airlines are also struggling to run their services on schedule and flight cancellations are becoming the new normal. 

READ ALSO: ‘Arrive three hours early’: Your tips for flying in Germany this summer

According to regional newspaper, the Rheinische Post, around 70 flights were cancelled at Düsseldorf at short notice over the weekend. 

The news follows confirmation from Lufthansa that at least 3,200 flights have been taken off the schedule this summer. Germany's largest airline had initially announced that it would be scrubbing a 1,000 flights in the month of July, but later went on to add that 2,200 further services would be cancelled during the busy summer months.

Lufthansa's subsidiaries Eurowings and Swiss have also cancelled flights in the run up to the vacation period, while EasyJet has also confirmed that a "small number" of flights will be taken off its schedule. 

How is the government planning to tackle this?

According to reports in Bild am Sonntag, the German government wants to step in and alleviate some of the staffing pressure by allowing German companies to recruit thousands of short-term workers from abroad. 

Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) said he was working alongside Labour Minister Hubertus Heil and Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (both SPD) to "relieve the staff shortages at German airports and present a temporary solution".

“The Federal Government is planning to allow urgently needed personnel from abroad to enter Germany for temporary work," Heil confirmed on Sunday.

Ralph Beisel, CEO of the German Airports Association (ADV), told DPA the staff would be recruited from Turkey, the Balkan states and other countries for a period of up to three months. 

But the opposition CDU/CSU parties have criticised the plans and argued that the problem should be solved with German workers instead.

"The airport chaos could be permanently solved with domestic skilled workers," CDU transport policy spokesman, Thomas Bareiß (CDU), told the Rheinische Post. 

Estimates from the German Economics Institute suggest that there is currently a shortage of about 7,200 skilled workers at German airports. Airport and airline bosses fired thousands of employees in an effort to cut costs during the Covid pandemic and others sought new work during the crisis.

With highly infectious Omicron subvariants tearing through the country, the industry is also having to reckon with regular staff illness and the self-isolation regulations. This is compounding the severe staffing issues.

READ ALSO: Germany to ‘recruit workers from abroad’ to ease airport chaos

Could the situation improve in summer?

If the government lays the groundwork for an easy recruitment and relocation process, around 2,000 airport workers could enter Germany as early as July. But this may still not be enough to completely make up for the shortfalls.

So far, just one of Germany's 16 states has commenced its school holidays. The remaining 15 are due to go on holiday in July and August. 

In more disheartening news for passengers, the CEO of Lufthansa has warned that the current staffing issues won't be resolved until at least winter this year - or possibly 2023. 

In an open letter to customers, CEO Carsten Spohr said the sudden increase in air traffic from nearly zero at the height of the Covid travel restrictions to around 90 percent meant the industry could not deliver its usual "reliability, robustness and punctuality".

"We can only apologise to you for this and we also want to be completely honest," Spohr wrote. In the coming weeks, with passenger numbers continuing to rise, whether for holidays or business trips, the situation will hardly improve in the short term."

The CEO said that the group, which announced it was laying off 30,000 staff during the pandemic, was in the process of rapidly recruiting thousands of new workers. "However, the stabilising effect from this will only be felt in the coming winter," he added.

In an interview on Welt TV, Transport Minister Wissing expressed dismay at the fact that the industry had not started dealing with its staffing issues sooner.

"Securing skilled staff is not an issue that is new, everyone knows that this is one of the most important tasks," the FDP politician said. 

In another letter addressed to employees, Spohr admitted that the management had made mistakes over the previous two years.

"Under the pressure of the more than €10 billion in pandemic-related losses, did we overdo it with savings in one place or another? Sure we did," he said. "Quite frankly, for our management team and for me personally, this was the first pandemic we had to deal with."

READ ALSO:

• Flight chaos – How your travel plans to Germany could change this summer
• German airline Lufthansa axes 3,000 flights over staff shortages

What else can be done? 

As well as the efforts of government and private companies, Germany's United Services Union (Verdi) is also stepping in to support the struggling industry.

On Tuesday, the union called on Lufthansa subsidiary Eurowings to attend a short-notice crisis summit in order to find joint solutions for employees and passengers over summer.

Verdi pointed to the recent layoffs carried out by airlines in the Lufthansa Group, including Eurowings, and said that the situation was placing "enormous physical and psychological strain" on employees.

"High levels of sick leave and employee resignations are the result," they wrote. "This subsequently results in flight cancellations with angry passengers and chaos at the airports." 

Marvin Reschinsky, Verdi's negotiator at Eurowings, said he was confident of finding a solution with the airline that could help ease the situation. 

"We are optimistic that with mutual determination we can succeed in finding solutions to the current situation that are in the interests of both employees and passengers," Reschinsky said. "This is necessary to safeguard holiday traffic again."