Transport ministers want to end chaotic flight passenger checks

KShortly before the Easter holidays, the transport ministers of the federal states will be discussing smoother passenger checks at airports next week. The federal states have proposed that the federal government transfer responsibility for security checks to the airports, said the chairman of the conference of transport ministers, North Rhine-Westphalia’s head of department Oliver Krischer (Green). The federal government has now basically cleared the way for this.

The current state of affairs will be discussed during the two-day conference in the middle of the week in Aachen. Also Minister of Transport Volker Wissing (FDP) will take part in the conference, said Krischer.

In recent years – with the exception of Bavaria – the federal government has been responsible for passenger controls at airports. In the years of the corona pandemic, however, it turned out that the structures of the Federal Police could not cope with the onslaught of passengers. This led to ugly scenes and long waiting times, especially during holiday periods. Changes are now possible, so that such situations will no longer have to arise in the future, said Krischer.

It’s also about 30 km/h zones

The Frankfurt airport operator Fraport has been controlling the deployment of private security forces itself since the turn of the year; the Federal Police is still in charge of security policy supervision. The Düsseldorf, Cologne/Bonn, Hanover and Stuttgart airports, among others, have also expressed an interest in controlling the passenger controls themselves, reported the chairman of the conference of transport ministers.

In addition to the 49-euro ticket, numerous other topics are on the agenda. Among other things, the cities needed more freedom of action in designating 30 km/h zones and in financing public transport. An alliance of 400 cities requires more flexibility, said Krischer. “This is prevented by road traffic law. We need a line on how to get ahead here.”

After the Bundestag created the legal basis for a 49-euro ticket on Thursday, numerous other questions remained to be clarified in the VMK, said Krischer. Uniform procedures are also desirable in the tariff structure for the Germany ticket – for example with the student ticket or the question of how to take bicycles with you. Especially in the introductory phase, questions from citizens in all federal states should be answered in a uniform manner. “So that there is no patchwork quilt, we have to get a common structure with all tariffs that are attached to the 49-euro ticket,” emphasized Krischer.

Temporary solution for paper tickets

This is particularly difficult with the extremely different regulations for school trips. “This is a highly complex task that will take a little longer until, hopefully, there is a uniform regulation,” said the Green. “But we’re not at that point yet.”

He will fight to ensure that the introductory price of 49 euros per month applies for as long as possible, said Krischer. “I’m assuming that we’ll be able to keep the 49 euros next year.” This is particularly possible if the ticket is refinanced by high demand. However, given the high inflation rates, the price cannot be guaranteed in the long term, Krischer admitted.

The 49-euro ticket is to be valid in local transport throughout Germany from May 1st. A digitally bookable, monthly terminable subscription is planned. Actually, the Germany ticket does not allow other people, animals or bicycles to be taken along – in some regions, however, the transport associations want to allow this or offer special additional tickets that are then only valid there.

Since there are currently shortages on the chip card market due to the semiconductor crisis, the federal and state governments have decided on an interim solution for paper tickets until December 31, explained Krischer. The introduction of the ticket will not fail because of this.

As other central topics of the conference, Krischer named new perspectives, such as how the necessary expansion of local public transport could be adequately financed and what contribution the transport ministers could make to achieving climate protection goals. These tasks required billions in investments over the next few years.