The current wave of widespread strikes at German airports is clearly overstretched. Not only are hundreds of thousands of holidaymakers and business travelers unable to travel, unable to enjoy their well-deserved vacation, missing business meetings or returning late from their trip.

In fact, these strikes cause damage to the tourism industry through necessary rebookings, hotel extensions for travelers on site, hotel bookings for earlier arrivals, replacement transport, travel cancellations and refunds for customers, compensation and additional costs at the destination in the tens of millions.

On top of this, travel agencies and tour operators are faced with enormous additional personnel costs. “The victims are the many hundreds of thousands of people who are unable to travel as planned. As well as travel agencies, tour operators and service providers in Germany, who will suffer considerably as a result of the strikes. The considerable financial damage caused by the strike action at airports is unacceptable for the tourism industry,” said Norbert Fiebig, President of the German Travel Association (DRV).

If the customer has booked a package tour and his flight is canceled due to unavoidable extraordinary circumstances, the tour operator is obliged to reimburse him for the tour price within 14 days if he cannot offer reasonable alternative transport to the destination. The consequence of this is that the tour operator earns nothing from these trips. On the contrary: the tour operator must pay its service partners, such as hotels, tour guides and transfer services, even if the trip is not carried out. The strike at Hamburg Airport last Saturday, which was announced just half an hour before the start of the spring break there, and today's strike at 13 airports are unavoidable exceptional circumstances. The cost burden for the providers is therefore increasing once again.

“Of course we respect the right to strike. But the quasi-unannounced strikes and today's widespread strikes are inappropriate. Instead, collective bargaining should take place at the negotiating table and not be carried out on the backs of travelers and employees of the travel industry,” DRV President Fiebig calls on the parties to negotiate.