The second summer holiday weekend is approaching in North Rhine-Westphalia – the waiting times at the airports are sometimes long. From Cologne/Bonn Airport, “we received reports of a queue that is about three kilometers long,” reports an RTL reporter from Düsseldorf Airport. “You have to wait three and a half hours before you get to the security check.”
“Several hundred vacationers are stuck there now (…),” reports RTL reporter Uli Klose and displays images of a long line in the terminal at Cologne/Bonn Airport. “I’ve already gotten 100 meters further. Only about 1000 meters queue to the security check,” tweeted the Austrian journalist Robert Misik from the line of people waiting.
On its website, the airport warned of long waiting times at security checks before the start of the summer holidays. Travelers should be at the airport at least two and a half hours before departure. A week and a half ago, nobody expected such long queues.
But there were signs, says Özay Tarim, union secretary at Verdi, in an interview with RTL. “We currently have a sick leave rate of 24 percent at the security checkpoints at Cologne/Bonn Airport alone.” “We have employees who say we can’t take it anymore, we’re at the limit.” Hundreds of employees have reported sick, which leads to staff shortages.
