The strike by the Verdi union has severely affected air traffic in Germany. At large airports, operations came to an almost complete standstill.
Frankfurt/Main – The nationwide warning strike largely paralyzed operations at major German airports on Monday. There was no regular passenger service at the largest airport in Frankfurt. “The situation is calm,” said a spokesman for the operator Fraport. There are no passenger flights. There are only “very limited” connections in the upper single digits, such as emergency medical flights or flights for relief supplies.
In Frankfurt, around 1,170 take-offs and landings with a total of around 160,000 passengers were originally planned. Fraport expects the consequences of the strike to be felt even after the strike is over. It is possible that there will be longer waiting times on Tuesday, the spokesman said. Passengers should be prepared for any delays in operations, check the status of their flight in good time and allow enough time.
Munich Airport was also paralyzed on Monday. “There are no passengers on the way,” said a spokeswoman for the airport’s traffic management. All 785 scheduled flights were canceled today. “Nothing takes off or lands. It’s almost a bit spooky.” Only an ambulance plane arrived in Munich in the morning.
Partly also redirected
In North Rhine-Westphalia, air traffic at the two largest airports in Düsseldorf and Cologne-Bonn was severely hampered by the warning strike. “Everything is sealed here,” said Verdi union secretary Frank Michael Munkler at Cologne/Bonn Airport. The airport had announced that at least three quarters of the planned 175 take-offs and landings would be canceled. Further flight cancellations or diversions are possible. 330 take-offs and landings were planned at Düsseldorf Airport on Monday. Of these, 69 flight movements are expected to take place throughout the day, a spokesman said. Some flights were diverted or postponed to Tuesday.
Regular flight operations at Stuttgart Airport were paralyzed on Monday for the third time in just a few weeks. All 170 planned arrivals and departures should be canceled. In Hamburg, all take-offs and more than half of all landings were canceled on Monday morning. Originally 147 take-offs and 152 landings were planned. A much slimmed-down flight plan was online for Hanover. No planes should start in Bremen. The capital’s airport BER was not included in the warning strike, but all domestic German flights were canceled, as were those in Leipzig/Halle and in Dresden.
The Verdi union called for a day-long warning strike at almost all airports on Monday. The airport association ADV assumed that around 380,000 business and private travelers would not be able to board their flights. Smaller airports, including Paderborn, Memmingen, Saarbrücken, Karlsruhe, Lübeck and Friedrichshafen, remained open for passenger flights, according to ADV. dpa
