To deal with the chaos in handling, German airports and their ground service providers want to directly employ thousands of foreign workers for three months. But in some places, the helpers can come too late for the booming summer business.
According to ground services, foreign helpers can only temporarily alleviate the shortage of staff and the flight chaos at German airports. "We welcome the help from politicians," said Thomas Richter, head of the employers' association of ground handling service providers in aviation (ABL). "It doesn't solve the problem, but it certainly helps." At the weekend, the interior, labor and transport ministries announced a campaign for the temporary employment of foreign workers. Up to 2,000 employees could probably be deployed at the airports for three months from August. "A time limit of a maximum of six months until the end of the year would have been nice," said Richter.
Aviation is in a dilemma. With the ebbing of the corona pandemic, the industry finally wants to get going again and even had the pre-crisis level in mind. Instead, there are flight cancellations, delays and queues. The sticking point is a lack of staff and bottlenecks at security controls, check-in and aircraft handling. According to the airport association ADV, about every fifth position there is vacant. Various associations want to get around 2,000 temporary workers from Turkey to fill staff gaps.
The details have yet to be worked out. "We don't know the 100 percent design yet," said Richter. In the next few days, the airports should report their exact needs. Richter expects 1,000 to 2,000 people. The assistants would then be employed on a fixed-term basis by the respective ground service providers at standard wages and help with baggage handling, security checks or check-in, for example. According to the ABL, the companies also provide the accommodation.
But first the people have to undergo a security check. "We probably need July for the so-called background check," said Richter. Federal states such as Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria with the late start of the holidays at the end of July/beginning of August would therefore probably have more of the campaign. "It's getting tight for North Rhine-Westphalia". The summer holidays started there last weekend - and promptly led to long queues and problems with luggage transport at Düsseldorf Airport.
Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser emphasized that there were no compromises when it came to security. ABL boss Richter explained that it is not about simplifying the security check, but only accelerating it. A spokeswoman for the airport association ADV also said that the aim was to deploy staff safely as quickly as possible.
In some places, the assistants could be too late for the booming summer business. Ground service lobbyist Richter said the additional workers could improve the situation in August, September and October. "That helps backwards and brings stability to the processes at the airports." However, looking to the future is rather sobering. Many employees turned their backs on the industry during the Corona crisis. "The European market has simply been grazed in terms of personnel."
