The shortage of personnel in air traffic leads to a war of nerves before the long-awaited vacation. In view of the staff shortage at the security check, federal police officers are now stepping in.
Cologne (dpa/lnw) – As a consequence of hours of waiting and long queues of travelers last weekend, the federal police want to increase capacity at Cologne/Bonn Airport. As part of a temporary tender, a second security service provider is being sought, said the federal police, who are responsible for these controls, in St. Augustin.
However, this will take some time: Providers can register until July 31st. Around 110,000 passengers are expected again on the coming holiday weekend from Friday to Sunday. The airport is the second largest in North Rhine-Westphalia after Düsseldorf and is used by many to start their vacation.
Düsseldorf is preparing for 63,000 passengers on Saturday and 65,000 on Sunday. Here, too, the lack of staff at peak times leads to waiting times and queues. The airport is countering this, for example by increasing the number of services provided by students and rerouting passengers depending on how the controls are manned.
Last weekend, the security check at Cologne/Bonn Airport was the bottleneck. In some cases, not even half of the necessary lanes were open, the airport reported. Travelers had to wait for hours, hundreds missed their flight.
Should the situation there deteriorate again, the federal police also want to use their own colleagues. They could be used as marshals or as body escorts before the obligatory aviation security check, where passengers and their luggage are checked for weapons or dangerous objects. This also happened last weekend, said a spokeswoman for the federal police.
The situation was so chaotic that the police were called to calm unnerved travelers. The airport administration also spoke of “unreasonable waiting times”. Airlines have already reduced flights in Cologne/Bonn, and further cancellations are to come.