During the recently completed summer vacation in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Cologne / Bonn Airport counted around 1,1 million passengers. The forecast was around 850.000, which is why the airport was able to exceed its own expectations by 20 percent.

"The summer was particularly challenging this year: traffic rose sharply at the beginning of the holiday, and at the same time the effects of the pandemic on air traffic were and are noticeable everywhere," says airport managing director Torsten Cabinet. During the holidays, the total number of passengers was a good 50 percent of the pre-crisis level of 2019.

“Nevertheless, due to the very uneven distribution of flights over the day, there were traffic peaks in which the volume was above 2019. That posed great challenges for everyone involved in the process, ”explains the airport manager. This resulted in more time-consuming processes - from check-in to security checks and aircraft handling. Especially in the first few weeks of the holiday, this led to sometimes considerable delays and long waiting times at peak times. "We regret that we were not always able to offer our passengers the usual quality standards during these special holidays," admits the manager.

The airport has already taken and implemented numerous measures that have already led to a noticeable improvement in operational stability and significantly shorter waiting times. In particular, the staff in aircraft handling was increased significantly. In addition, as part of the “Helping Hands” project, employees from various parts of the company provided support, including from operational areas, administration and management, in the terminal and on the apron. "A big thank you goes to all employees for their tireless efforts," says Thorsten Wardrobe.

The most popular holiday destination during these summer holidays was Turkey (395.000 passengers), which even exceeded the number of passengers from 2019 by around 13.000. This is followed by Spain (196.500 travelers, 125.000 of them to Palma de Mallorca) and Greece (108.000 passengers).