Chaotic conditions at Munich Airport: 750 travelers miss flights!

Chaotic conditions at Munich Airport: 750 travelers miss flights!

On Thursday, chaotic conditions at Munich Airport provided great frustration among travelers. Long waiting times for the security controls meant that many passengers missed their connections or flew considerably late. Numerous waiting times reported for hours, and around 750 people could no longer reach their flight in time. In addition, almost 60 flights, according to Lufthansa, were affected and started.

Airport chief Jost Lammers apologized to the travelers on Friday for the inconvenience. "We took measures immediately," said Lammers. One central measure is that passengers of the Lufthansa subsidiary Discover Airlines will be stopped by the security locks in Terminal 1 from Friday morning. In addition, there are plans to transport travelers who were planned for Terminal 2 with high crowds by bus to the controls in Terminal 1.

reasons for the delays

The causes of chaos during the holiday are complex. An airport spokesman exposed several factors on Friday that led to the situation. First of all, reference is made to the extensive renovation work that takes place on the security controls. This work has been bringing bottlenecks for some time. In addition, construction work on the S8, which heads up the airport, led to irregular S-Bahn connections. That meant larger groups of passengers that had to appear on the security controls at the same time.

Airport leader Lammers also referred to an "unusual arrival behavior" of passengers as the reason for the problem. Many travelers arrived up to six hours before departure, which led to a massive rush to the security controls. Lammers interpreted that this was not the usual practice and was part of their analyzes. In order to avoid similar problems in the future, the airport and Lufthansa appeal to travelers not to get to the controls more than three hours before departure.

politics reacts to the chaos

The reactions from politics were not long in coming. The Bavarian state government expressed its dissatisfaction and demanded quick improvements. Government circles emphasized that the existing situation could not be accepted and that everyone involved was required to tackle the problem. Mayor Dieter Reiter also expressed his criticism and expressed that he was dissatisfied with the current performance of the Munich Airport. It is known that the different stakeholders at the airport - the Federal Republic, the Bavarian State Government and the City of Munich - not only have financial but also operational interest in the improved performance of the airport.

In the days after the incident, however, an improvement was evident. On Saturday afternoon, the airport reported a regular company at the security controls of both terminals, whereby this was also attributed to the reduced passenger volume compared to Thursday. For any further bottlenecks, the management has additional measures in the hindquarters to be able to react quickly. Despite the emerging improvements, the question remains how the airport can react better to similar situations in the previous main season in order to ensure the smooth handling of its passengers.