Dhe air traffic in Germany got going again on Saturday after the warning strike by the Verdi union without any major problems. In some cases, however, passengers at the affected airports were still affected by delays and individual flight cancellations. After Friday’s strike, there was a backlog that had to be worked off, said a spokeswoman for the operator Fraport in Frankfurt. It is unclear whether the effects will still be felt on Sunday.
After the end of the night flight ban at 5 a.m., operations in Frankfurt started normally. However, there will be more take-offs and landings on Saturday to clear the backlog. The spokeswoman reported queues in front of the security checks.
The snakes “run through the building”
One day after the warning strike, the planes took off again normally at Munich Airport – but it was significantly busier than usual. “There are no more strike-related failures,” said an airport spokesman. However, according to him, long queues formed at the security checkpoints because “a lot of traffic was shifted from Friday to Saturday”. In addition, Friday was the last day of school before the Bavarian carnival holidays.
The lines “run through the building,” the spokesman said. It was “enormously busy” – significantly more than on a regular Saturday. However, it is difficult to estimate how long the passengers would have to wait in line. He couldn’t say whether some of them missed their flights as a result. “We have no chance of getting our flight,” said a passenger who said she was at the airport three hours before departure – and was still waiting in line half an hour before her plane was scheduled to take off.
Operations at Hamburg Airport ran as usual. “Everything is going perfectly normally,” said a spokeswoman. According to the website, the waiting time at the security checkpoint in the afternoon was a few minutes. It was said in the morning that rebookings from the previous day could lead to a significantly higher occupancy rate for individual flights. The spokeswoman emphasized in the afternoon that the airport only had figures on the actual capacity utilization after the fact.
Operations at Stuttgart Airport have also returned to normal. No failures were recorded on the flight schedule on Saturday morning. “Regular operations again,” the airport wrote on Twitter. According to a spokeswoman, only two early flights were canceled at Bremen Airport. In Hanover, three flights were canceled in the early morning, but the first machines took off again from around 5 a.m.
A total of seven airports were largely paralyzed by the warning strike on Friday. The Verdi union had called for a day-long walkout and, in the ongoing collective bargaining conflict in the public sector, is also threatening warning strikes in garbage disposal, in hospitals or public order offices. According to the airport association ADV, around 300,000 passengers nationwide were affected by 2,300 flight cancellations.
Passengers were also advised on Saturday to check the status of their flights. Even after the strike, there could be isolated changes in the flight schedule, it said. In addition, passengers should be at the check-in counter in good time. Fraport recommends 2.5 hours before departure.