Status: 02/19/2023 10:13 a.m
A large part of air traffic in Germany stood still for a day. After the warning strike, regular flights are resumed today. However, there are still longer waiting times at some airports.
Flight operations have returned to normal after the end of the warning strikes at German airports. Flights were again taking off and landing or were planned at the hubs in Frankfurt am Main and Munich as well as in Hamburg, Hanover, Bremen, Dortmund and Stuttgart, but there were still delays and isolated cancellations.
After the 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 tomorrow. After the end of the night flight ban at five o’clock, operations in Frankfurt started normally. However, there are more take-offs and landings to clear the backlog. The spokeswoman reported queues in front of the security checks.
Long queues in Munich
At Munich Airport, too, the planes took off normally again – 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, yesterday was the last day of school before the Bavarian carnival holidays.
The snakes “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.
Normal operation in Hamburg and Stuttgart
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. However, the airport only had figures on the actual capacity utilization after the fact, said the spokeswoman.
Operations at Stuttgart Airport have also returned to normal. No failures were recorded on the flight plan in the morning. “Regular operations again,” the airport wrote on Twitter.
According to a spokeswoman, two early flights were canceled at Bremen Airport. In Hanover, three flights were canceled in the early morning.
About 300,000 passengers affected
A total of seven airports were largely paralyzed yesterday by the warning strike. The trade union ver.di 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 in public order offices.
According to the airport association ADV, around 300,000 passengers nationwide were affected by 2,300 flight cancellations. Passengers were advised 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.
