LIVETICKER: Travel chaos 2022 – flight canceled at short notice: family is now driving 15 hours to Barcelona in three cars

Second holiday weekend: traffic jams and full airports expected

The second wave of holidays in North Rhine-Westphalia is likely to start with full trains, queues at the airports and more traffic on the motorways. While according to the ADAC it could be busier on the motorways than on the first holiday weekend, a slight relaxation is possible at the large airports in Düsseldorf and Cologne: the number of passengers on Saturday and Sunday at both airports should be slightly below those of the first holiday weekend.

Airlines are still canceling numerous flights, presumably due to a lack of staff: According to the flight plan on Friday, 18 flights were canceled at Düsseldorf Airport alone. Last weekend, 68 take-offs and landings were canceled at the country’s largest airport. The cause is the Europe-wide shortage of personnel in air traffic. Cologne/Bonn Airport warned of long waiting times at security checks. Travelers should be at the airport at least 2.5 hours before departure.

Rail traffic is expected to be particularly crowded on Friday, when commuters and holidaymakers meet on the trains, as a railway spokesman said. For road traffic, the ADAC expects a higher load in North Rhine-Westphalia than on the first holiday weekend, when it was very quiet on the motorways, partly because the summer holidays in Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania also took place on the first weekend in July start. It should be particularly crowded on Friday afternoon, Saturday morning and Sunday afternoon, as the automobile club announced at the beginning of the week.

The highest potential for congestion is at the weekend on the routes towards the North and Baltic Sea coasts and on the way to the south. Drivers would have to be patient, especially in the greater Cologne area and in the entire Ruhr area. The A4 will be completely closed in the direction of Aachen from the Heumar motorway junction to the Gremberg motorway junction from Friday (July 1st) at 9 p.m. to Monday (July 4th) at 5 a.m., according to Autobahn GmbH. “All in all, this travel summer should be as congested as before the corona pandemic,” predicts the ADAC.