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 European level, took a lot of 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.

The measures included, for example

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

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. 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.

Especially bottleneck with air traffic controllers

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.