For many vacationers, the holidays ended at the airports in Cologne/Bonn and Düsseldorf because, contrary to all the assurances of the airports, there were extremely long waiting times at the security checks. In addition, some Ryanair connections had to be canceled due to strikes. For completely different reasons, Eurowings left many passengers sitting.

The Verdi union comments on the conditions that prevail at the two largest airports in North Rhine-Westphalia at the beginning of the vacation period as a "disaster with announcement". A clear warning was given more than a year ago that the number of staff in many areas is too low. However, the employers reacted far too late and in some cases not at all. Passengers who actually only wanted to fly on vacation are now suffering.

It's not that there weren't any signs that major problems were brewing, because during the Easter and Pentecost holidays things were already going rough at many airports across Europe, to put it mildly. Demand picked up again and it became apparent that the personnel policy that many decision-makers have opted for is totally screwed up. Shortly after the start of the corona pandemic, many employees parted ways and it was assumed that they would come back later anyway. A misconception, because especially in areas that are not exactly known as top earner jobs, many have reoriented themselves in other sectors.

German short-time work threatens the existence of low earners

The much-praised short-time work in Germany has also not helped to keep employees in areas where many helping hands are needed but the wages are not exhilarating. In contrast to Austria, those affected were fobbed off with only about 60 percent of their wages and many employers did not grant “voluntary top-ups”. For example, many security staff simply could not live on this low income and have found other ways to make ends meet. So why return to aviation?

Employers can be accused of many things and in almost all cases they are justified, because many have not been loyal to their employees during the pandemic. However, smaller service providers in particular, who work as subs from subs from subs, were often on the verge of bankruptcy because their income had actually collapsed. Responsibility is to be found in politics, because money was left over for dubious mask deals, in which opaque circles made a lot of money, and money was also thrown out the window for completely meaningless Corona apps. However, the aviation and tourism sectors received insufficient support. Although there were one or the other public campaign or billions of euros were poured into the throats of particularly large providers, it was not stipulated anywhere that the money must also be used to maintain jobs.

Ultimately, the fact that little or no consideration was given to employees is now taking its revenge and it is now difficult to find new employees for low wages. It's not as if the aviation industry still has a reputation as a reliable employer. In the meantime, the opposite is the case, because politics is actively contributing to this, regardless of the image of the respective company. As? What perspective is there? Do you lock down again or introduce crazy entry restrictions and demand collapses again? And then what about the employees? Such thoughts preoccupy people who are looking for a job or are ready for change and mostly stability is preferred. This is more likely to be the case in supermarkets or as security in front of the entrance to an authority than with Siko at the airport.

Quite apart from that: the most recent cancellations, which caused angry passengers in Cologne/Bonn and Düsseldorf, are only slightly related to the Siko chaos. At Ryanair, the cause is simple: strikes because unions in some countries are demanding better wages for their employees. Of course, it is massively annoying for those affected when this happens at the beginning of the holiday season. However, it is completely wrong to blame employee representatives for the fact that the managements of some airlines refuse to engage in serious negotiations or stubbornly reject improvements. Every strike can be prevented if people talk to each other, and that's exactly what some airline bosses don't think they have to do.

You knew in advance that passengers were coming

The Eurowings cancellations are a special case, because there was no strike at the Lufthansa subsidiary. According to the carrier, it has received a particularly large number of sick leave in the last few days and the staffing level, which is not particularly thick anyway, is massively too thin. There is a particular lack of flight attendants and therefore you cannot fly. The decision-makers may have already forgotten that the employees of Germanwings, who could be urgently needed now, were thrown out the door. Eurowings made the chaos completely in-house, because they really went full throttle in the sales area and were fortunately successful. It is good for all airlines, including Eurowings, to have the best booking figures after the difficult years of the pandemic.

The "but": You should have known beforehand how much you can actually fly with the existing staff. The motto "it'll be fine" or "by then we'll have enough people" worked "sort of" before the pandemic, but jobs in aviation were still popular back then. Yes, for many young women and men, being a flight attendant was a real dream job. And today? Many positions are advertised and every now and then an application comes in. Sometimes the candidates jump off again when it comes to the issue of payment. However, there are other reasons why it is not possible to hire large numbers of aviation employees at short notice: training and courses are required, which vary in length depending on the occupational group.

Unfortunately, the long queues and the many canceled flights that existed and still exist in Cologne/Bonn and Düsseldorf, for example, are only a foretaste of what many passengers can expect in the summer of 2022. Incidentally, switching to the train is not such a great idea either, because in Germany the nine-euro ticket overfills the trains and in Austria the climate ticket contributes in a similar direction. Of course, the use of public transport is positive, but the capacities should have been increased beforehand, because it shouldn't be a great surprise that cheap tickets are also used. If you switch to the car, it will be particularly expensive to fill up and car drivers' clubs are already warning of many, many traffic jams on Europe's motorways.