Again and again there are long waiting times at check-in and at the controls at Düsseldorf Airport. The airport company fears that this will not improve in the summer holidays either. More staff should defuse the situation a bit.
Düsseldorf (dpa / lnw) – Düsseldorf Airport is also preparing for long queues and delays during the summer holidays. One must continue to expect that passengers will need patience, especially in the morning hours and after late arrivals, said airport boss Thomas Schnalke on Friday. The situation is a major burden for passengers and employees. The cause is the lack of staff at service providers for passenger handling. This leads to delays and sometimes considerable waiting times for passengers throughout Europe. The summer holidays in NRW start in three weeks.
The airport announced its own measures to relieve the service providers. During the holidays, for example, the airport’s own team is to support the airlines’ service providers when unloading luggage. Airport service staff should also be deployed at the baggage carousel and distribute water there if there are longer waiting times. In the terminal, student assistants should help the service staff and, if necessary, divert passengers to other checkpoints. In order to speed up the checks, the students should remind the passengers that electronic devices or liquids should be at hand, that jackets should be taken off or that belts should be undone.
The Verdi union describes the measure as a “patch-up”. At peak times, all gates are often full, said Verdi expert Özay Tarim. This is not how you can redistribute passengers. It is also not fair to assume that customers “have forgotten how to fly”. The basic problem is the lack of staff among the control forces.
The airport also sees the federal police and their security service providers as responsible. In June 2020, the Federal Police commissioned the German Protection and Guard Service (DSW), a subsidiary of the Piepenbrock Group, to carry out the controls. However, contrary to what was contractually agreed, the company could not provide enough staff, said an airport spokesman.
The Federal Police hopes that the personnel situation at the controls will improve by the summer holidays. The DSW has promised that they want to recruit as much as possible, said authority spokesman Jens Floren. It is about personnel who, after training, can work as “instructors” and as “tub returners”. According to Flören, DSW has already recruited staff. In order to defuse the situation by commissioning another service provider, the Federal Police issued new security checks at the beginning of the year. However, no company applied.