Things are currently chaotic at many German airports. One reason for this is the lack of ground staff. The government wants to fly in relief workers from abroad to ease the situation, but the Union doesn’t like the idea.
The Union has called on the federal government to rely on domestic specialists instead of foreign helpers in the fight against the chaos at German airports. “The airport chaos could be permanently solved with domestic specialists,” said the transport policy spokesman for the Union parliamentary group, Thomas Bareiß, of the Düsseldorf “Rheinische Post”. “I call on the responsible ministers to act in this way,” said the CDU politician.
In the meantime, the travel chaos is harming Germany’s reputation abroad, said Bareiß. It also burdens many people “who have earned their vacation”. At the weekend it became known that the government wants to allow the entry of hundreds of foreign helpers who are supposed to help out at the airports with baggage handling, for example. Government circles said that a four-digit number of assistants should be brought in from Turkey.
The German police union has dampened expectations of the planned deployment of foreign helpers. Chairman Heiko Teggatz told the “Handelsblatt” on Monday that the chaos at German airports “can no longer be prevented in the short term” and politicians know that “very well”.
Airlines and airports are currently experiencing a lack of staff in particular. Flights are canceled and there are long queues at airports. Many jobs were cut during the corona pandemic, and there are currently many corona diseases. According to a study by the German Economic Institute, there is currently a shortage of around 7,200 skilled workers at German airports. The industry has therefore asked the government for help.
Shortly before the start of the main holiday season, Lufthansa announced that it would be canceling almost 3,000 flights at its Frankfurt and Munich hubs because more and more crews were reporting sick due to corona cases. The reason is in particular a lack of staff not only at the airline itself, but also at the airports, for example at the security checkpoint.
