The airports in Germany are facing the first major travel wave of the season this weekend. With the start of the Easter holidays in most German federal states, hundreds of thousands want to go on holiday trips, especially to the Mediterranean region, starting this Friday. The tourists do not have to fear strikes in the public service because of the peace obligation that begins when the attempted arbitration is made.

The operating companies of the airports as well as airline representatives have announced that the process will run smoothly. Another handling chaos like last summer should be avoided at all costs.

Personnel problems persist

The two largest hubs in Frankfurt and Munich expect roughly the same number of people on the three days from Friday to Sunday. The Bavarians are expecting around 100,000 passengers each, at Rhein-Main Airport there are over 180,000 guests a day at the start of the holiday season in Hesse and the surrounding countries. Although these are highs in the current year, they are also significantly lower than the record values ​​from the time before the corona pandemic, when more than 240,000 passengers were counted in Frankfurt.

According to the airport association ADV, the larger airports continue to have problems finding sufficient staff. In order to be able to handle the planned flight program, the airports, airlines and service providers planned much more closely together, explained ADV general manager Ralph Beisel these days. "We are operationally well prepared for the coming weekend," said a Lufthansa spokeswoman. Germany's largest airline is again using a Boeing 747 jumbo on the unusual short-haul route to Mallorca at Easter.

Passengers should be there on time

There should be no excessively long queues at the large NRW airports. After the chaos last summer, one is well prepared, say spokesmen for the airports. The destinations of the Easter vacationers are Turkey, Mallorca, Egypt and London, reported Düsseldorf Airport. It's similar at the neighboring airport in Cologne: the most popular travel destinations here are Spain, Turkey and Italy. Both airports together expect around 1.4 million passengers during the holidays.

The airports ask the passengers to appear at the airport in good time before departure, with as little and well sorted hand luggage as possible. Parking spaces and time slots at the passenger checkpoints can be pre-booked at many airports.