On busy days, travel frustration threatens again

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Spring break, Ascension Day and Pentecost weekends, summer holidays soon: Many Swiss ask themselves before the “best days of the year” what will be the situation at airports in the coming weeks and months. Long queues formed again on Easter days when record passenger numbers were recorded at Zurich Airport.

A preview of the upcoming weekend when the spring break for the canton of Zurich will begin? The answer is almost certainly yes.

The bottlenecks in the cantonal police

One of the reasons for the congestion of passenger traffic at the airport is the Zurich cantonal police. Responsible for security checks at Zurich Airport. Recently, there have been longer wait times due to a lack of staff at the security checkpoint. Kapo spokesperson Carmen Surber told Blick: “The situation in the labor market is tense, so it’s difficult to recruit new employees quickly.” Therefore, passengers are encouraged to “arrive at the airport 2-3 hours before departure and carry only as much hand luggage as the airlines allow”.

Airport spokeswoman Bettina Kunz confirms that security control remains a bottleneck: “Unfortunately, Kapo cannot always provide the required quota at this time.” There will be sufficient planning time. The airport appoints staff from the cantonal police based on its own passenger estimates. This is done ten weeks in advance.

Airport and Kapo confirmed that they “found solutions” to bring the waiting times in front of security control back to the “expected level” – waiting times in Zurich are often quite short; security check can be spread over several floors. Exactly what these solutions should look like is unknown.

Kapo states that training for new employees only continues for the airport control department. There are five lessons for 2023. One has been completed, one is in progress, and the others will continue throughout the year. In addition, Carmen Surber says it is seeking additional, temporary assistants “to assist with the preparation of the security check during the summer.”

Politics is necessary

According to Stephan Müller* (62), an airport employee, who did not want to be named, the bottlenecks may have something to do with the cantonal police being constrained by budgetary constraints when it comes to staff expansion. So politics has to intervene here. But nothing will come of it until the upcoming holiday dates.

The question is why the cantonal police are responsible for security checks. By law, only border and customs controls are the duty of the police. Pure security checks can also be provided by private companies. In Geneva, for example, it is the shipping companies that take over the security control. Zurich Airport points out that only in Zurich the cantonal police are responsible. “Ultimately, we depend on the cantonal police and ultimately on the politicians who provide the proper staffing,” says airport spokesman Kunz.

Where are the browsers?

Meanwhile, Müller identifies another problem at the airport itself: “Unfortunately, Switzerland has not yet acquired the modern CT scanners that are already in successful use in Munich, Frankfurt and Amsterdam.” With such scanners, passengers no longer have to open liquids, for example, during check-in. This requires significant acceleration of security processes. “Despite being licensed in Switzerland, airports are hesitant to invest – I find that incomprehensible,” Müller concludes.

When asked this question, Bettina Kunz reminds them that Zurich Airport also controls the use of CT scanners. The call for tenders is currently being made between suppliers. But realistically, it cannot be expected to be deployed until 2025. Kunz points out that there have been queues in the past as the infrastructure was not designed for busy days. Similar to what happens over and over on busy days in Gotthard despite all precautions.

*Name changed

Source :Blick