Long queues at check-in counters and controls, canceled flights, delayed luggage: Germany's aviation sector is facing a difficult summer.

And Jost Lammers, head of Munich Airport, must now ensure that challenges do not end in chaos - not just in Bavaria, but throughout Germany.

Lammers has been the new President of the German Aviation Association (BDL) since the beginning of the month.

Ilka Kopplin

Business correspondent in Munich.

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Timo Kotowski

Editor in Business.

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“We are making adjustments in all areas, a lot of new staff is being sought and also hired.

So there is already a relief.” However, the bottlenecks have not been completely eliminated.

At Düsseldorf Airport, where particularly long queues have recently formed, an additional service provider is to strengthen control points at the start of the holiday there at the weekend.

“The security checks are a critical bottleneck.

That's where passengers are most likely to get restless when they're afraid of missing their flight," says Lammers in an interview with the FAZ. "And at all German airports, around 20 percent of the necessary staff are missing at the controls."

"Task of the State"

He sees the federal government as having an obligation.

"Although private service providers are commissioned by the federal police to carry out the security checks, it is the responsibility of the state to ensure that the checks are carried out efficiently," he says.

"In order to ensure short-term relaxation, it would be a sensible measure for the next few weeks for the federal police to support them with their own forces." The Federal Ministry of the Interior recently saw things differently.

For the ground handling services, i.e. employees for loading luggage, for example, intensive talks were underway, also with the federal government, to check whether special permits for the hiring of employees from Turkey are possible in order to recruit them for a short time.

The domestic search has not yet filled all the gaps, and all new applicants have to go through an official reliability check before they can be hired, which takes several weeks.

Lammers rejects the fact that the industry itself reacted too late to increasing bookings.

“We have seen very abrupt openings.

Corona travel restrictions have been lifted in many countries at short notice,” he says.

The demand has increased very rapidly.

"People want to travel and now believe that it's possible again."

"Remuneration matters"

German airports reported 387 percent more passengers for May than in the same month last year.

There were hopes of recovery in 2020 and 2021, but then new virus variants intervened.

80 percent of the pre-pandemic traffic is now expected for the summer.

Demand is even higher on holiday routes to the Mediterranean and North America, and even lower to Asia.

After the summer school holidays, the rush of holidaymakers will subside, but the search for personnel will continue.

“As an industry, we have to think about how we can continue to be as special and attractive as we have been in the past.

Compensation also plays a role here,” says Lammers.

Many employees had reoriented themselves during the crisis, some had found a job with logisticians.

“We are currently in competition with other employers in metropolitan areas.

If something more is paid there, that is a reason to switch there.

We have to face that.”

The bumpy operation is partly obscuring another major task.

The industry must fly in a more climate-friendly manner in the future.

“Fleets have been renewed to reduce emissions for decades.

If that hadn't happened, kerosene consumption would be twice as high today as it was in 1990," says Lammers.

“However, the most important decade for avoiding emissions has now begun.

Alternatives to kerosene will bring big changes.

We have to make it clear that flying is not the enemy of climate protection, it is CO2.”