The head of Germany’s Frankfurt airport blamed the chaos at airports on black suitcases, the Guardian reported on Friday, citing German media.
Stefan Schulte, the head of Frankfurt Airport, advised passengers to carry their belongings when possible and to use suitcases that are easy to spot. Black suitcases are so common that it’s “hard to tell them apart,” he said, according to the Guardian.
“Many people travel with black suitcases on wheels, which makes identifying them very time-intensive,” added Thomas Kirner, a spokesman for Frankfurt Airport, according to the Guardian.
Frankfurt Airport has cut 4,000 jobs during the pandemic and is struggling to cope with an increase in air passenger demand as restrictions ease. So far it has only managed to rehire 1,000 new ground services, Reuters reported on July 6.
Due to staff shortages, disruptions at Frankfurt Airport were expected to continue for the next two to three months, Schulte said in early July, according to Reuters. Just last week, there were approximately 2,000 suitcases stuck at Frankfurt Airport, according to Bild.
The aviation sector is dealing with a messy summer travel season with flight delays, lost bags and chaos across the industry – and especially in Europe – as demand has returned to pre-pandemic levels. Problems faced by airlines include staff shortages and bad weather.
Industry participants blamed each other for the chaos.
Over the weekend, the CEO of soil handling giant Swissport criticized governments for their “invented political science” that has led to mass layoffs, swissinfo.ch reported. Swissport CEO Warwick Brady told Swiss media Luzerner Zeitung that “after the massive job cuts that were absolutely necessary at the time, there are now staff shortages everywhere.”
Last week, the chairman of London Heathrow Airport hit back at airlines that blamed the aviation hub for the travel chaos. Airlines such as the Emirates and Qatar Airways have criticized Heathrow for limiting the number of passengers who can fly out of the facility each day.
As airlines cut ground handling jobs during the pandemic, more than half of ground handlers across Europe have left the industry, Lord Paul Deighton, the chairman of Heathrow Airport, wrote in the Telegraph on Tuesday. Such workers handle a wide range of jobs at airports from check-in to loading and unloading bags.
Ground handling companies are trying to fill the positions, “but if their airline customers won’t pay market rates, then they can’t fill the positions,” Deighton wrote.
