No chaos is expected at the three airports in Dresden, Erfurt and Leipzig-Halle.

The preparation for this article started yesterday morning at Rhein-Main Airport in Frankfurt/Main with a canceled flight to Berlin. I had little hope of rebooking on the same day and so luckily I was sitting in a rental car just a few minutes later on the way back to the German capital. The shortest way in terms of time led me past Erfurt and Leipzig-Halle, so I took the opportunity to make a short detour to the two airports, appropriately in time for the start of the summer holidays there.

In the three federal states of Thuringia, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt, which together have a little more than 8 million inhabitants, the school holidays start at the same time this weekend. It turns out that this summer it might be smart(er) to start from a smaller airport to avoid chaotic scenes.

While at Erfurt – Weimar Airport in the coming days and weeks, holiday flights in the direction Antalya, Hurghada, Rhodes, Heraklion, Burgas and Palma de Mallorca start, from the airports of the Mitteldeutsche Flughafen AG (MDF-AG) there are also a large number of city connections to choose from in addition to the classic holiday destinations. For example, the Spanish Vueling has recently been controlling the Destination Paris Orly as well as Turkish Airlines' own Istanbul hub from Leipzig-Halle

From Dresden, for example, London-STN offered by Ryanair or Zurich (Swiss) are on the flight plan. The list of holiday destinations served from Leipzig and Dresden includes not only the classic holiday areas around the Mediterranean, but also the Canary Islands or Madeira in the Atlantic, as well as destinations in Egypt on the Red Sea or in Bulgaria.

Even if no chaotic scenes are to be expected at the three smaller local airports due to staff shortages, it is still advisable to start your holiday without hectic and to be at the airport 2,5 hours before departure. The time then saved without chaotic scenes in front of counters or security checks at the airport can then probably be better invested in an additional cup of coffee before departure. In any case, yesterday, Friday, there was absolutely no sign of chaos in either terminal.