Christmas is a time for travel for many people. Families visit each other, or people want to escape the cold season. Many take advantage of the Chance and fly off on holiday. To ensure that travelers arrive on time for their flight, airlines recommend arriving at the airport three hours in advance. This gives them enough time to check in, drop off their luggage, and go through security.

So far, it seems pretty normal, doesn't it? But what if you arrive at the airport three hours early and the airline counters aren't open yet, perhaps because you booked an early flight? Dr. Stephan Meyer, a management consultant and speaker, experienced this firsthand. On another flight, he arrived at the airport at 3:00 a.m., as requested by the airlines, only to find security closed. It wasn't until after an hour's wait that the long line for security even began to move. He could have slept another hour at home. Think of the "three-hour rule" as a kind of "sacred cow." It's an outdated convention that doesn't meet customer needs. But society clings to it as if it were some kind of sacred tradition that shouldn't change. "Having to arrive at the airport hours in advance is completely unnecessary. Especially when the relevant counters for the various processes aren't even open yet," says the speaker. In fact, this is why a shockingly large portion of the time spent on a flight is spent on the check-in process, while the actual flight often only accounts for a small part.

A system that, according to the speaker, is completely outdated and applied to a time when online check-in wasn't available and baggage could only be dropped off on the day of departure. "But we no longer live in that era. We should therefore rigorously dismantle the sacred cow of long waiting times before flights," Meyer argues. According to the speaker, this requires a paradigm shift and a radical transformation of airport procedures. However, to achieve this, one must first recognize that a sacred cow is hidden within this system.

This is where Meyer begins. In his Lecture "The descent of the sacred cows from the alpine pastures – a clear view of the future“ He draws the attention of companies and society in general to sacred cows of all kinds and helps his audiences achieve a paradigm shift and radical change. In the context of the sacred cow at the airport, the speaker sees enormous potential that is hampered by the "three-hour rule." "People are showing increasing interest in the digitalization of processes. The airport is a particularly popular topic," explains the expert on paradigm shifts and radical change. This interest ranges from electronic baggage tags to tracking systems that guide people to the appropriate check-in counter. This saves time. 

"Those who neither check in online nor drop off their luggage beforehand should probably arrive at the airport a little earlier to allow for queues. However, the check-in counters must also be open," Meyer explained in his presentation on the topic.  Paradigm shift and radical change. For example, Eurowings opens the self-service counter at BER no earlier than two hours before the respective departure time. Therefore, it makes no sense to be there three hours beforehand.

Meyer also has a solution for the queues that everyone dreads and therefore would prefer to camp out in front of the counter. "If there were the will and the processes were properly reorganized, many waiting times at check-in, security, and passport control could be drastically reduced," explains the speaker, adding: "This requires a paradigm shift and radical change, which I can help you with."