What did the aviation summit bring to passengers last October? Top representatives of the federal government and the federal states, air traffic control, airlines, airports and associations meet on Thursday in the Hamburg city hall to an interim balance.

The participants had agreed in October to take action against 24 delays and service shortages with 24 concrete measures. These included, for example

  • additional staff for better airline quality,
  • faster and more effective security controls
  • and a more flexible use of air traffic controllers .

Now they want to check which measures have been implemented or initiated. At the end a summary should be published. Federal Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer (CSU) and Hamburg Mayor Peter Tschentscher (SPD) have invited the meeting, as they did in October. The cause were numerous delays and flight cancellations last summer.

According to an analysis of the Internet portal AirHelp, the number of canceled and delayed flights in Germany has increased in the past year compared to 2016 by 55 percent to 242,000 problem flights. The flight volume was only increased by five percent. Almost two million air travelers would not have reached their destination at all or more than three hours late, twice as many as in 2016.

Whether it will be better for the passengers in the upcoming travel season is by no means certain. Because in the sky over Germany, it will be even closer. After the record 3.4 million aircraft movements in the previous year, air traffic control expects a further increase of up to four percent in German airspace. Several problems with the security controls at the airports have not yet been resolved. The staff shortage in air traffic control remains on the agenda.

Air traffic controllers and airlines fear renewed chaos

The union of air traffic control (GdF) had recently criticized that of the 25 projects so far, little has been implemented. She fears that the delay chaos at German airports could be even more serious this summer than last year. They also see the main reason for a massive shortage of staff in the control centers of the German air traffic control (DFS).

Condor boss Ralf Teckentrup expects also this year impairments in air traffic during the travel time. There are still bottlenecks in security controls. "Processes, organization and responsibilities - there is still much to be improved," said Teckentrup the editorial network Germany (RND) The productivity of the airports in comparison to other European countries on any satisfactory quality level: "Here is clearly the policy is in demand."

With regard to air traffic control, the Condor chief said the authorities had underestimated how much demand would increase in European air traffic. In the short term, that can not be changed, said Teckentrup, who is also president of the Federal Association of German Airlines (BDF): "We have too few pilots." This will also be 2020, 2021 and 2022, "he said. Additional hired air traffic control personnel can only start regular service after completing at least four years of training.