The individual members of the European Union continue to carry out their Covid entry controls very differently. From a simple folding sign to artificially produced traffic jams in terminals, pretty much anything is possible. It is noteworthy, however, that checks are often carried out more intensively by air than by land.

For a long period of time, Germany practiced extremely lax controls, which in most federal states consisted only of a folding sign that read that the entry requirements should be observed. “SMS bombardment” was introduced later, because passengers coming from abroad are literally littered with messages signed with “Federal Government” for several days. Even if the traveler has left Germany in the meantime.

Just a few weeks ago, the German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) ordered that all passengers coming from abroad should be checked by the federal police. As a result, flights coming from Austria, for example, were diverted to non-Schengen areas. But the focus of the police was obviously on classic identity checks, because the passports were placed on scanners and the Covid documents were a minor matter. Inquiries as to whether the documents are sufficient were repeatedly answered with “I don't know, you have to ask the health department”.

Germany: announced loudly, quietly discontinued

While Horst Seehofer announced his “strict controls” in a publicly effective manner, he did not say a word about the fact that these have now been abolished in almost all federal states. At Stuttgart Airport, for example, the “control” again consists of a simple folding sign and, now, of the SMS bombardment. The folding sign does not, of course, check whether an entry registration, test or vaccination certificate is available.

Flights that arrive from non-Schengen countries, such as Turkey or Kosovo, are an exception. These will continue to be checked, because all passengers have to go through the regular passport control anyway. There are also still restrictions, because entry into Germany from many countries is only permitted with a valid reason.

What is the right middle ground now? On the one hand, there are voices in the population calling for strict entry controls and, at the same time, displeasure with the fact that long queues form in front of the controls in terminals. As a reminder: Air traffic is still at a very modest level and long queues are already forming. If the demand should pick up again properly in the summer months, it can be doubted that the capacities for meticulous document controls of all travelers are even available at the German airports.

Lax on the land route, meticulously on the air route

A look at Austria shows a different situation, but a gross unequal treatment of travelers. This is due to the fact that checks are carried out extremely weakly and sometimes only on a random basis, while, for example, at Vienna-Schwechat Airport, almost all passengers after their arrival so-called Covid checks, which the armed forces carry out on behalf of the district authority of Bruck an der Leitha carry out, have to endure.

While entry from Slovakia, Hungary and other countries with which Austria has land borders never presented a serious problem, even during the peak of the pandemic, as the documents were only laxly and often not checked at all, there were always discussions at the airports with the soldiers. A traveler who drives from Bratislava to Vienna by car can still travel to Austria in many cases without looking at any documents, with the information that he is on his way to work or that he has a business appointment in Slovakia. Of course, the question also arises how armed forces soldiers, whose only technical equipment is often a private smartphone, in which the proverbial pampas should check documents for authenticity?

Queues in Vienna under fire

Back to Vienna Airport: Entry controls are increasingly becoming a problem, as the terminals are structurally designed for a vast majority of Schengen traffic. Specifically, this means that it is not that easy to create checkpoints that do not cause backlogs. For structural reasons, Terminal 3 is particularly problematic in this context, because the aisles are narrow and long queues quickly form.

Every single traveler should be checked, but there are differences. Non-Schengen passengers have to go through passport control, but the police are not responsible for Covid checks. This means that the armed forces also carry out the “corona control” before or after. In the case of Schengen flights, only the documents are checked by the military.

In the last few days, various media have criticized the fact that these “corona checks” lead to long queues at Vienna Airport. For structural reasons, it is sometimes not possible to keep the distances or they are disregarded by the passengers and simply tolerated by the officials of the Federal Army and the district authority of Bruck an der Leitha. There are also problems with the mask requirement: Austria requires FFP2 masks to be worn, but other countries still allow “scraps of cloth”, “medical masks” and, in rare cases, even face shields. This inevitably leads to chaos.

Vienna Airport emphasized to various media that the capacity for Covid controls is currently sufficient. The emphasis is on currently, because it is expected that significantly more passengers will be on the way during the summer holidays. The last few days have shown how close it can be on days with slightly increased demand - Pentecost - in the tightly built Terminal 3. There is not yet a date for the reopening of the other terminal buildings, but Vienna Airport will have to take this step in order to be able to provide the additional capacity for the government's Covid controls. It would also be counterproductive to have a completely overcrowded Terminal 3 during the summer holidays, while the other halls could be put back into operation for more distance. As already mentioned: There is no schedule for this yet.