Review of the Hamburg Aviation Summit: In the summer chaos threatens

Air travelers in Germany, according to estimates from politics and business, have to deal with delays and flight cancellations this summer. Despite some improvements and high investments, the situation remained tense in view of the growing aviation traffic, was the conclusion of the participants after the second aviation summit in Hamburg.

Some measures - such as training new air traffic controllers or changing framework conditions at the European level - took a long time, others could be implemented quickly. "We want a good mobility offer for the citizens, and we work hard on it," said Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer (CSU). "But we can not make everyone happy this summer."

The summit in Hamburg with representatives of federal government, states, airlines, airports, air traffic control and authorities was the successor meeting of a first conference last October after the Chaos Travel Summer 2018. The participants had decided on a catalog of 24 measures and now checked in Hamburg how far as they have come in every single point. Scheuer said that all measures had been taken.

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.

And this year it will be even closer in the sky over Germany. 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.

More staff on the ground, more jets in reserve

Because of the problems, it will be this summer "maybe a little better than last year," said the President of the Federal Association of the German Air Transport Industry (BDL) and Chief of the German Air Traffic Control (DFS), Klaus-Dieter Scheurle. But not all capacity issues could be solved. He pointed out that airports had hired more staff for ground services.

Airlines also kept more jets on standby than the so-called reserve and the number of air traffic controllers in training had been increased to 122. The main problem is, however, that the number of flights in German airspace last year was around 54,000 higher than a few months before forecast and will continue to increase. The capacity of airspace is reaching its limits.

According to Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr, his group has now invested more than 250 million euros in measures that were adopted at the first aviation summit. Among other things, 600 employees were hired, including 200 mechanics, he said.

According to Spohr, Lufthansa will also reserve 37 aircraft as a reserve this summer in order to stabilize the timetable. That's 50 percent more than last year. The airlines are in international competition and would have an interest in maintaining the quality of aviation and "structural bottlenecks" for growth, said the head of the largest German airline.

Condor boss: productivity at the airports is not satisfactory

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).

According to Condor boss Ralf Teckentrup there are still bottlenecks in the security checks. "Processes, organization and responsibilities - there must still be significantly improved," said Teckentrup the editorial network Germany (RND). The productivity at the airports was in comparison to other European countries on no satisfactory quality level: "here 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.