Federal police had to step in Hundreds of passengers miss their flights
Cologne · There were major problems at Cologne/Bonn Airport again the weekend: Travellers queued for up to seven hours before the security check. The police had to intervene, to calm some of them down. Quite a few guests missed their flights.
There were major check-in problems this weekend with queues of several hundred metres in front of the security areas, stretching all the way to the terminals. A German Press Agency (dpa) reporter stood in a queue in front of the security check for seven hours on Saturday. He was lucky: his flight was delayed - and he still made it to his destination. Several passengers were unlucky: they missed their flights and had to reschedule.
The long waiting times had already caused so much frustration and aggression the day before that the Cologne police had to increase their presence and intervene to keep things orderly and peaceful. One Dutch passenger and his family had already arrived at the terminal shortly after 7.00 a.m. on Saturday. However, he did not reach his flight at 11.30 a.m. - and then had to queue again to get back his checked-in suitcases.
Even getting to the airport was a problem for many travellers, because many suburban and regional trains in the Rhineland were cancelled this weekend due to a lack of staff.
"We have noticed that in our immediate area of responsibility - the space in front of the security gates - the queues have become extremely long. And in individual cases there are attempts to enter the security area without authorisation," Cologne police spokesman Christoph Gillen told WDR. " This is something we have to prevent. So we have reinforced our security forces there in an attempt to improve the situation." In concrete terms, this means that people pushing in front of the queue were fished out and sent to the end of the line.
According to police reports, several passengers had already attracted attention on Friday evening because of their loud or aggressive behaviour. Police officers were therefore on site to "ensure that everything proceeded in an orderly manner". On Saturday morning, there were once again extremely long waiting times at the security checks. According to a spokesperson for the Federal Police, it took about four to five hours.
The high demand for travel after the Coronavirus lull has not come as a complete surprise. The problems were already serious during the May holidays of Ascension Day and Whitsun. Things got even worse during the summer holidays in North Rhine-Westphalia.
This weekend, the neighbouring states of Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate also started their summer holidays. The main reasons for the situation are people on sick leave, including with Coronavirus infections, the already serious staff shortage in the industry and high passenger volumes at peak times.
Frankfurt Airport: Are there problems there, too?
There were no major problems at Frankfurt Airport on the weekend where the summer holidays started in several federal states. A spokesperson for Fraport, the airport operator, said on Sunday that although the terminals were very busy, everything had been running smoothly so far. A spokesperson for the Federal Police spoke of "moderate waiting times" of 20 to 30 minutes at the security checks: "The checks are working smoothly, our measures such as additional staff are having an effect." Frankfurt Airport has also been experiencing baggage handling problems for weeks due to a lack of staff. Fraport had prepared that waiting times of one to two hours at baggage claim were also possible on weekends. (Translation: Jean Lennox)
