Shortly before the Easter holidays, the transport ministers of the federal states will discuss smoother passenger checks at airports next week. The states have proposed to the federal government to transfer responsibility for security checks to the airports, said the chairman of the Conference of Transport Ministers, North Rhine-Westphalia's department chief Oliver Krischer (Greens). The federal government has now cleared the way for this in principle.

During the two-day conference in Aachen in the middle of the week, the state of affairs will be discussed. Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) will also take part in the conference, Krischer said.

In recent years – except in Bavaria – the federal government was basically responsible for passenger checks at airports. In the years of the corona pandemic, however, it turned out that the structures of the Federal Police were not up to the onslaught of passengers. This has led to unpleasant scenes and long waiting times, especially during holiday periods. Now changes are possible, so that it does not have to come in the future to such situations, said Krischer.

It is also about 30 km/h zones

The Frankfurt airport operator Fraport has been controlling the deployment of private security forces itself since the turn of the year; the Federal Police still supervises security policy. The airports of Düsseldorf, Cologne/Bonn, Hanover and Stuttgart, among others, have also expressed interest in controlling passenger controls themselves, reported the chairman of the Conference of Transport Ministers.

In addition to the 49-euro ticket, numerous other topics are on the agenda. Among other things, cities needed more freedom of action in the designation of 30 km/h zones and in the financing of public transport. An alliance of 400 cities requires more flexibility, Krischer said. "This is prevented by road traffic law. We need a line on how to move forward here."

After the Bundestag had created the legal basis for a 49-euro ticket on Thursday, numerous other questions remained to be clarified in the VMK, said Krischer. Also in the tariff structure around the Deutschland-Ticket as uniform procedures as possible are desirable – for example, with the student ticket or the question of how to deal with the bicycle transport. Especially in the introductory phase, questions from citizens in all federal states should be answered uniformly. "So that there is no patchwork quilt, we have to get a common structure with all fares attached to the 49-euro ticket," Krischer underlined.

Interim solution for paper tickets

This is particularly difficult with the extremely different regulations for school trips. "This is a highly complex task that will take a little longer to hopefully come to a uniform regulation," said the Green. "But we're not there yet."

He will fight for the introduction price of 49 euros a month to apply as long as possible, said Krischer. "I assume that we will be able to keep the 49 euros next year." This is especially possible if the ticket is refinanced through high demand. However, in view of the high inflation rates, the price could not be guaranteed in the long term, Krischer admitted.

The 49-euro ticket is to be valid from 1 May in local transport throughout Germany. A digitally bookable, monthly cancellable subscription is planned. Actually, the Deutschlandticket does not see any transport of other people, animals or bicycles from - in some regions, however, the transport associations want to allow this or offer special additional tickets, which are then only valid there.

Since there are currently shortages in the chip card market due to the semiconductor crisis, the federal and state governments have decided on a transitional solution until December 31 for paper tickets, Krischer explained. The introduction of the ticket will not fail because of this.

As further central topics of the conference, Krischer mentioned new perspectives on how the necessary expansion of local public transport can be adequately financed and what contribution the transport ministers could make to achieving the climate protection goals. These tasks required billions in investments over the next few years.