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Flights disrupted at Frankfurt airport after severe thunderstorms

Torrential rain and thunderstorms battered central and southern Germany on Wednesday night, causing widespread transport disruption and flooding at Frankfurt airport.

Published: 17 August 2023 11:56 CEST
Lightning and thunder in the Frankfurt district of Sachsenhausen.
Lightning and thunder in the Frankfurt district of Sachsenhausen. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Arne Dedert

A major storm caused severe flooding in several parts of Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia on Wednesday night, bringing public transport and flights to a standstill in the Frankfurt area.

Between 8 pm and 11 pm in the evening, Hesse was hit by flash floods, with around 60 litres of rainfall per square metre in the state capital of Frankfurt.

In nearby Raunheim, about 58 litres per square metre fell within two hours, while Griesheim was hit by 50 litres of rainfall per square metre and ferocious gusts of winds that reached speeds of around 80km per hour.

In some regions that were particularly hard-hit by the floods, around 50 litres of rainfall fell within just 20-30 minutes. 

The Rhine-Main also saw an unprecedented amount of lightning during the storm, with meteorologists recording 25,289 lightning flashes in a single hour between 8:40 and 9:40 pm.

By comparison, 11,566 lightning bolts were measured throughout Hesse in the entire year of 2022.

READ ALSO: German word of the day: Platzregen

90 flight cancellations

The heavy thunderstorms wreaked havoc at Frankfurt airport, with many passengers unable to leave their planes after landing due to the floods.

According to reports in Tagesschau, passengers returning from Athens on a flight that landed at 8:30 pm were unable to exit until around 11 pm. 

The airport was also forced to suspend ground handling entirely for two hours due to the storm, meaning 34 flights were unable to take off at the scheduled time. 

The airport said it was forced to axe 90 flights while 23 more were rerouted to land at other airports, affecting thousands of passengers.

Some passengers slept on camp beds while many spent the night at the airport hotel.

“Today, the situation will probably stabilise again,” a spokesman told AFP. “There are still passengers here who need to be booked onto new flights.”

However, due to the disruption on Wednesday, the airport said further delays and backlogs could be expected on Thursday.

“Yesterday’s weather conditions will proceed to affect today’s flight schedule,” the airport cautioned on X (formerly known as Twitter).

“Due to increased passenger volume, we advise all passengers to arrive at the airport 2.5 hours before their flight time.”

Frankfurt’s public transport was also disrupted by the extreme weather, with many underground trains, suburban trains and trams pausing their operations due to safety concerns. 

In the district of Sachsenhausen, water penetrated the Südbahnhof, causing several underground lines to be suspended until Thursday morning.

READ ALSO: Germany to see ‘extreme heat’ and thunderstorms in coming week

Submerged vehicles 

The fire service in Germany’s financial capital said they launched over 500 operations from late Wednesday to early Thursday related to the storm.

There were more than 350 instances of water flooding into buildings and 17 fallen trees, they said, adding that off-duty personnel were called in to help.

The storm also affected other areas, with residents of Gelsenkirchen in North Rhine-Westphalia experiencing heavy flooding. 

Streets, cellars and lower-lying residential areas were rapidly overwhelmed with water, while trees toppled over, hitting vehicles, the fire service said.

Emergency services pump water out of a flooded street in Essen.

Emergency services pump water out of a flooded street in Essen. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Michael Weber

Emergency service workers rescued people from vehicles at several highway underpasses.

In one area, parked vehicles became submerged and some streets were only passable with inflatable boats.

Experts say that climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of floods.

In 2021, Germany’s western regions of Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia were hit by catastrophic flash floods that killed over 180 people.

Work to rebuild infrastructure in the damaged regions continues to this day. 

READ ALSO: How flash floods left a trail of destruction in western Germany

More storms expected

On Thursday, the German Weather Service predicts highs of between 22C and 29C and the potential of more thunderstorms.

Going into the weekend, the weather will be hot and muggy, with temperatures of up to 35C in the south and up to 30C in the north.

Saturday could bring more strong winds, thunderstorms and heavy rainstorms, which are likely to subside in most regions of the country on Sunday, leaving relatively sunny and dry weather in its wake. 

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TRAVEL NEWS

EES: Why is the UK-France border such a problem for the EU’s new biometric passport checks?

The EU's proposed new system of passport checks known as the Entry & Exit System will apply to all of the Bloc's external borders - so why are most of the warning lights coming from the France-UK border? And is it really Brexit related?

Published: 8 May 2024 12:03 CEST
EES: Why is the UK-France border such a problem for the EU's new biometric passport checks?

The EU’s new Entry & Exit System of enhanced passport checks – including biometric checks like facial scans and fingerprints – is due to come into effect later this year.

You can read a full explanation of how it works HERE and see our frequently-asked-questions section HERE, including information for non-EU citizens who are resident in an EU country and the system for dual nationals.

EES will apply to the whole of the EU and Schengen zone and will apply at external borders, but not for travel within the Schengen zone itself (eg between France and Germany or Italy and Switzerland).

You can hear the team at The Local discuss the latest developments on EES on the Talking France podcast – listen here or on the link below

The EU has plenty of external borders from land borders such as the Greece-Albania border to the airport frontiers that occur when, for example, an American flies into Italy.

But while several nations have expressed concern that their infrastructure is not ready, the loudest and most dire warnings are coming about the border between France and the UK.

READ ALSO Travellers between France and UK could face ’14-hour queues’ due to new passport system

So why is this border such a problem?

The problems with the UK France border are threefold; volume of traffic, space and juxtaposed borders.

Volume of traffic – This is simply a very busy border crossing, about 60 million passengers a year cross it by ferry, plane, Channel Tunnel or Eurostar. For people travelling from the UK, especially those crossing by car on the ferry or Channel Tunnel, France is simply a stopping point as they head into Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands or to Spain or Italy.

Around 70 percent of those passengers are British, which means they will have to do the EES checks.

READ ALSO Could the launch of EES be delayed again?

Space – The second problem is to do with the space that is required to process all those passengers as several crossing points – especially the Port of Dover and the embarkation area at London St Pancras – are quite crowded and for various reasons don’t have room to expand.

Extra infrastructure is required to complete EES pre-registration checks and this will be difficult to physically fit into some crossing points – for context the EES pre-registration area for the Channel Tunnel at Coquelles covers 7,000 square metres.

Juxtaposed border controls – the UK-France border is also unique within the EU because of its juxtaposed border controls, which are the result of a bilateral agreement between France and the UK known as the Le Touquet agreement.

Juxtaposed border controls exist at Paris Gare du Nord and London St Pancras for those using the Eurostar, the ports of Dover and Calais and the Channel Tunnel terminals at Folkestone and Coquelles – these mean that when you leave the UK you get your passport checked by both British and French authorities, and then there are no passport checks when you arrive in France – and vice versa.

This means that if there is a hold-up at one border control it has a knock-on effect on the other and means that very long queues can quickly build up – as has been seen several times at the Port of Dover since Brexit.

The Brexit effect

Part of the problem with the UK-France border is that discussions about EES began while the UK was still a member of the EU, and then the conversation changed once it had left.

However, even when it was in the EU, the UK never joined the Schengen zone so there were always passport checks for travellers between France and the UK.

The difference is that EU citizens are exempt from EES – so those 70 percent of passengers crossing that border who are British would have been exempt from the changes had it not been for Brexit.

French and other EU citizens remain exempt and will not have to complete EES pre-registration once the system is up and running. 

Therefore EES would have only applied to a tiny minority of travellers entering the UK – for example American tourists arriving into London – which logistically would be a much easier challenge, especially for the Port of Dover whose customers are overwhelmingly either British or EU nationals.

What about Ireland?

Had it not been for Brexit, the UK would have been in a similar situation as Ireland is now – since Ireland is a member of the EU but not the Schengen zone.

Under the new system Ireland will not use the EES system at its own borders and will carry on manually stamping passports.

However, anyone who has an Irish passport will be exempt from EES when they are travelling within Europe – for dual nationals this only applies of they are travelling on their Irish passport.

READ ALSO Your questions answered about the EU’s new EES system

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