A proud 140 passengers could not compete at Karlsruhe / Baden-Baden Airport on Monday because the security check was completely overwhelmed by the number of passengers. Only a single control line was open. The Stuttgart regional council is responsible for Siko and not the airport itself.
In an interview with SWR, airport manager Uwe Kotzan regrets the incident. They apologize to the passengers, but also point out that the regional council of Stuttgart is responsible for the security checks. This has outsourced the implementation to a private company.
This had to struggle with sick leave and thus there were personnel bottlenecks. These were so serious that, despite the strong booking situation, only one control line was open and this too was anything but speedy. Even passengers who arrive at the airport very early had their legs flat for two hours or more and still missed their flights.
A total of four Ryanair flights were affected. Kotzan emphasizes to the SWR that they have tried to "smuggle" those passengers who could not be rebooked or who could be accommodated in hotels primarily through the Siko. However, this has not been successful in all cases.
So it happened that a total of 140 passengers from four flights could not start their journey. They did not remain calm and relaxed, because there are supposed to have been tumultuous conditions in front of the security check. Even the police had to intervene, but they couldn't calm the angry passengers.
Passengers have to stay in hotels
The affected passengers have been booked by Ryanair in various hotels and some are still waiting for their replacement transport. Efforts are made to get them to their destinations as quickly as possible, but the carrier clearly sees the fault on the ground and not with the airline. The regional council of Stuttgart, which is responsible for the security control, downplayed the situation and only said that the service provider Esa was unable to provide enough staff due to illness. One will try to remedy the situation with "a kind of spring troop". In the long term, they are looking for more staff, but that could take some time.
Airport manager Uwe Kotzan does not seem to be convinced that the unsustainable situation in Karlsruhe / Baden-Baden will improve quickly. In a radio interview with SWR, he appeals to passengers to get to the airport as early as possible and not to “come at the last minute”. Incidentally, there is still no strategy for avoiding such situations. At the moment you have to evaluate the causes first.
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