The passengers had to be patient at the start of the holiday season in NRW on Saturday, especially at Düsseldorf Airport. According to the airport, longer queues formed at the security checks in the departure area at peak times in the morning and mid-morning.

The waiting times were between 10 and 60 minutes, but according to a spokesman it was far from being comparable to the sometimes chaotic conditions at the beginning of the summer holidays.

The Verdi union, which observed the start of the holiday season in Düsseldorf, criticized the fact that far too few security personnel were still available. There were queues of several hundred meters in rows of five in front of Pier C. “We had to do more after the summer and nothing happened. It’s a disaster,” said spokesman Özay Tarim.

According to the airport, Cologne/Bonn was “normal operation”, with waiting times at the security check in the morning around five minutes.