German travellers are suffering disruption on a similar scale to Britain, with airports and airlines short of staff and hoping to draft in 2,000 workers from Turkey to work at German airports.
The German air transport association, the BDL, urged the government to allow a rapid deployment of recruits from Turkey, saying: “We hope it will happen very quickly.” However, background checks are expected to take at least six weeks, meaning staff won’t be deployed until mid-August.
German airlines have been cutting schedules to reduce the number of last-minute cancellations.
Lufthansa announced it would cut 2,200 flights in July and August and 600 in the first half of September after axing 900 in mid-June. The cancellations amount to about 5% of Lufthansa’s summer schedule.
The carrier said cancellations would be restricted to intra-European and domestic flights.
The German Travel Association (DRV) told German trade publication FVW: “It’s unlikely well-booked routes to package destinations will be cancelled on a large scale.”