In North Rhine-Westphalia, the summer holidays begin for around 2.5 million schoolchildren. Due to a lack of staff, the airports are groaning under high passenger numbers. But traffic jams are also expected on the roads, while Deutsche Bahn expects delays and cancellations.
North Rhine-Westphalia is the first of the 16 German federal states to start the summer holidays. For around 2.5 million schoolchildren in the most populous country, this means six weeks of vacation - a stress test for airports, trains and motorways. Already in the morning, for example, there were long queues for luggage check-in and, above all, at the security checkpoints at Düsseldorf Airport. According to their own statements, many vacationers had arrived several hours before the scheduled departure in order to be at the gate in time.
North Rhine-Westphalia's largest airport is expecting more than 200,000 passengers on the first holiday weekend alone - a total of three million passengers during the holidays. In the busiest times, almost as many passengers would be handled as before the corona pandemic, airport boss Thomas Schnalke reported this week.
However, due to a lack of staff in handling and security checks, among other things, the summer holidays are likely to become a stress test for the airports. "According to information from the aviation industry, around 2,000 employees are currently missing in all areas," the Federal Ministry of Transport recently reported. The airport works councils even estimate the total requirement nationwide at 5,500 workers. The reason: Many former airport and airline employees got other jobs during the corona pandemic, when hardly any planes were taking off.
But even those who go on holiday by train or car have to be prepared for stress. For the first holiday weekend, it should be tight again on the autobahns in NRW. The ADAC expects traffic jams and congestion. Traffic was already backed up for several kilometers in the early afternoon, especially on classic congestion routes such as the A1 Cologne-Dortmund-Osnabrück and the A3 Oberhausen-Cologne-Frankfurt.
Many trains are also likely to be full during the holidays. Numerous travelers will use the 9-euro ticket for holiday travel or day trips. According to Deutsche Bahn, there may be delays and cancellations on some routes due to construction sites. After NRW, the coastal states of Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania start their summer holidays a week later, followed by Hamburg, Berlin and Brandenburg on the Wednesday (July 6th). The southern states of Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria are the last in line - not until the end of July or August 1st.
