Germany’s Busiest Airport Resumes Operations Following Climate Activist Intrusion
A spokesperson for Frankfurt said around 140 flights had been cancelled out of 1,400 planned on Thursday.
Berlin:
Frankfurt Airport, Germany’s busiest, has resumed operations after halting flights on Thursday morning due to climate activists blocking runways by gluing themselves to the tarmac.
According to the airport’s website, planes are now able to take off and land, but passengers are still advised to check their flight status before heading to the airport.
A spokesperson for Frankfurt, a crucial international transit hub and one of Europe’s largest airports, reported that about 140 out of 1,400 planned flights had been canceled on Thursday.
Last Generation climate activists stated that six protesters breached a fence and positioned themselves at various points around the Frankfurt airport runways, displaying posters that read “Oil kills”. Images shared by the group show protesters in orange safety vests with their hands glued to the tarmac.
A federal police spokesperson confirmed that several climate activists were on the airport grounds.
The activist group is urging the German government to commit to a global agreement to phase out oil, gas, and coal by 2030. They have also planned similar disruptions in various countries across Europe and North America as part of a protest campaign that began on Wednesday.
In Norway, around a dozen activists blocked part of the check-in area at Oslo Airport for a second day of actions, though flights to and from the Norwegian capital were not disrupted, according to an airport official.
Germany’s Cologne-Bonn Airport, the country’s sixth-largest, suspended flights for several hours on Wednesday after climate activists glued themselves to a runway. Similar actions at other European airports were thwarted by authorities.
German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, who advocates for up to two years in jail for unauthorized airfield access, condemned the action as “dangerous, dumb, and criminal.”