Frankfurt am Main (dpa) – Frankfurt airport is getting ready for the busiest days of this summer, which are already full of failures. Up to 200,000 passengers a day are expected at the two terminals as the federal states of Hessen and nearby Rhineland-Palatinate start their summer school holidays on the weekend from 22 to 24 July. Operator Fraport, Lufthansa and the federal police explained on Thursday that system failures such as those at London and Amsterdam airports should be avoided at all costs thanks to increased staff deployment and reduced flight schedules.
Up to 1,250 aircraft with 285 destinations depart and land in Frankfurt every day, with Lufthansa accounting for around 70 percent. “We have already stabilized the system over the past two weeks,” says Fraport spokesman Jürgen Harrer. For example, Lufthansa canceled nearly 6,000 flights at its Frankfurt and Munich hubs for July and August, the lion’s share of which is said to fall on the Rhine-Main hub. There, following the end of Corona’s stagnation, operations have been particularly bogged down in groundhandling services – service providers that load, unload, refuel, clean or deliver airplanes.
With the appeals, Lufthansa wants the rest of the program to be more reliable. Even cargo flights will be diverted to Munich by the end of July as there are no ground staff in Frankfurt. “Every canceled flight hurts. Nobody likes to cancel flights, including us, ”says spokesman Martin Leutke. Crane primarily canceled short flights within Germany and to neighboring countries, and instead is increasingly sending customers by train on short-haul routes. Almost all holiday flights will be kept, promises Leutke. “Mykonos or Crete will not be removed.”
Surprised by high demand
The high demand for travel after the stagnation in the crown made airports and airlines unprepared. Managers of the companies admitted mistakes in personnel planning. Passenger numbers are still well below pre-crown levels. In June, 5 million passengers in Frankfurt represented the highest monthly value since the start of the pandemic, but at the same time it was still 24.1%. less than in June 2019
A spokesman for Fraport Harrer has lowered the expectations of hundreds of Turkish temporary workers for whom the federal government has issued special rules. Here’s where you need to look closely at the qualifications. In fact, Fraport still needs several hundred additional employees despite ongoing recruitment. “There is no structural shortage of staff at Lufthansa,” said Leutke. He attributed the bottlenecks to the high rate of sick leave due to the crown and the large number of minor incidents that made operations difficult.
200,000 passengers is actually nothing unusual for Germany’s largest airport. After all, the daily peak is exactly 241,228 passengers, counted on June 30, 2019. There was no question of Corona at the time, and Fraport was eagerly awaiting the opening of the first parts of the third terminal at the airport. Its opening has now been postponed to summer 2026 and the airport has reached its limits in late June with a record of 180,000 passengers after the crown.
Luggage mountains in the halls
Suitcases often jam at the port and have to be shipped behind passengers on other jets. Today, an average of four-digit number of pieces of luggage is stored in the halls, says Harrer. They are working “at full speed” to give them back to the owners. Teams have long started prioritizing outbound baggage. It also means that a two-hour wait for the baggage carousel is not uncommon for inbound flights, for which you should be prepared as you continue your journey.
Many passengers have long noticed problems with checked baggage and take as much carry-on as possible in the cabin. This in turn leads to longer passenger checks, says Reza Ahmari of the federal police. However, passengers here do not have to fear extreme waiting times, such as at the start of the NRW holiday in Düsseldorf. Service providers have almost as many employees on board as before the Corona crisis, says Ahmari. Instead of the usual 20 minutes, the waiting time in the upcoming traffic peaks can be up to an hour. Therefore, it is recommended that you go to the gate in the security area immediately after check-in.
There is no way to do without identity checks, says Ahmari. He addressed 150,000 prohibited items found at checkpoints last year. “Everything was there, from dummy hand grenades to chainsaws.”
Fraport, Lufthansa and the federal police called on guests to prepare their air travel well. This includes the possibility of checking in your baggage overnight, document checking, online check-in and the optimal preparation of your hand baggage for inspection. A Harrer Airport spokesman says: “We recommend that our passengers be at the airport two and a half hours before departure.” Federal Police Officer Ahmari prepared the most important piece of advice: “Please be patient and remain calm. It will help everyone in these times.
Fraport on travel organization
Up-to-date Lufthansa flight information