Lack of staff at German airports - a problem with a solution

Before the coronavirus crisis, the airports were in full swing, operations were running smoothly, but everything changed at beginning of this crisis. It is well known that, on one hand, more and more staff were laid off, and on the other hand, many employees were on short-time work and terminated their employment. Speaking of ground handling services, operational areas and security areas are struggling with the challenge of hiring sufficient staff. Air traffic is recovering from the pandemic, due to the pent-up demand, especially for tourist travel, everyone is expecting almost similar passenger numbers for the coming summer as there were before the pandemic.

There is a stuff shortage at the airports

But there are currently a huge staff shortage. It's no secret that, there are already numerous delays and waiting time during holiday periods because the airports doesn’t have enough staff on duty. Lufthansa also had to cancel some flight connections, so that operations at the airport were stabilized. Due to this recent event, the strike by KLM ground staff on Easter at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol made it clear that the workload was too high due to a lack of staff. Around "150 employees of the airline... spontaneously stopped work for three hours. This resulted in long queues at check-in and security controls.” (Tom Wilde, 2022 [quote translated from German in English]).

How to engage staff at airports?

"Basically, the human resources at all German airports are still tight, according to the largest German tour operator TUI. According to estimatoin by the airport association ADV, ground handling services and security checks currently have around 20 percent too few heads on board following the slump in employment during the pandemic.” (Flughäfen kämpfen mit Personalmangel., 2022 [quote translated from German in English]).

It’s clear that, It is necessary to hire staff as quickly as possible at all German airports, build up capacities and Hence the operational processes will go smoother. But this is easier said than done, because "despite extensive recruiting measures and other optimization steps [for example] Frankfurt Airport does not yet have sufficient staff available at many crucial points within the travel process" (ibid.).

It is well known that there is a lack of staff in the security check areas or at baggage loaders. It's basically difficult to get enough staff from Germany, that's for sure.

We can help getting the right staff

On this basis, we at aviation works have developed an innovative, international and unique recruitment concept. The concept can be adapted as required and specialized in several European countries which is already training people on site. The candidates receive the necessary training for the operational area in the national language. Necessary training for aviation security, including the fully recognized certificates, this is already acquired in the home country, and – often the most difficult thing – while waiting for the positive result of the background check, which everyone who works in the security area of an airport must have, the intensive German training.

The time of the background check (ZVÜ) is particularly well used, because during this time the candidates learn German - and as we know, that is often the biggest hurdle. If everything goes well, after about 2 months, sufficient German-speaking and trained employees will come to respective employer and can quickly work productively.

The good side effect is that, this way of recruiting staff can also put an end to the "rat race" of the "artificially created competition between handlers at airports... for the lowest costs and wages" (Flughäfen droht jahrelanges Reisechaos, 2021 [quote translated from German in English]). Because the recruitment concept from aviation.works has already convinced several airports and now supports them operationally in sustainable infrastructure planning.

Further information on the unique recruitment concept can be found soon at:

www.aviationworks.de

Author:

Michelle Gossen 05/30/2022

Sources:

Tom Wilde (2022). Flughafen Amsterdam-Schiphol: Flugstreichungen am Wochenende möglich. In: Nachrichten Check 24. URL: https://flug.check24.de/news/flughafen-schiphol-flugstreichungen-wochenende-70037

Flughäfen droht jahrelanges Reisechaos. (11.10.2021). In: ntv.de, jhe/dp. URL: https://www.n-tv.de/wirtschaft/Flughaefen-droht-jahrelanges-Reisechaos-article22859112.html

Flughäfen kämpfen mit Personalmangel. (aktualisiert 06.04.2022). In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung GmbH 2001–2022- 06.04.2022. URL: https://www.faz.net/-iki-aoj1a