Germany: Aviation lobby fears further flight chaos this summer

Airline passengers are likely to face further flight delays and cancellations over the European summer because of shortages of air traffic controllers, the head of the German Aviation Association BDL warned Thursday. Europe’s airports are struggling to cope with greater demand for travel and a lack of capacity on the ground. Airlines have blamed air traffic control as the reason for flight delays last summer, citing strikes in France and staff shortages. On Monday, Ryanair’s CE said he expects a “torrid time” in the four months to June due to shortages of air traffic controllers. BDL President Klaus-Dieter Scheurle said he expects further disruption this year, despite the German aviation sector agreeing on measures last October to try to avoid backlogs. “We must expect that summer 2019 will also be difficult, but we will have to wait and see by how much,” Scheurle said in an online briefing. Germany’s air traffic control (DFS) has increased the number of training places to 120 and is trying to recruit trained air traffic controllers from abroad to ease the bottlenecks.<br/>