Despite the chaos, airport service providers only request half of the announced support staff
Although the flight chaos continues unchecked, the ground handling service providers only want to hire about half of the announced temporary workers from Turkey. The companies had requested fewer than 1,000 helpers, said the head of the employers’ association ABL, Thomas Richter. Also on Thursday, Lufthansa announced further flight cancellations for the next seven days in order to stabilize the system, as a spokesman explained. In addition, four cargo flights are to be relocated from overburdened Frankfurt to Munich. The Lufthansa supervisory board chairman called on the employees to tackle the problems together.
When it came to the question of temporary workers, after talks with three federal ministries, there was always talk of a need for around 2,000 people. They should be recruited as quickly as possible at German tariff conditions, especially in Turkey, in order to alleviate the chaos at German airports. After the negotiations, the employment agency refrained from checking whether German employees were available for the jobs. However, the security checks by the state authorities remain in place.
During the actual implementation of the campaign, it turned out that some of the companies had imagined higher requirement profiles, said ABL association leader Richter. It was clear from the beginning that it could only be about “helping hands”, for example when loading luggage. The support also comes too late for some providers. Although he expects the first missions as early as August, the Frankfurt airport operator Fraport has so far assumed September.
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