Members of the German climate activist group “Last Generation” broke through the runway at Munich airport and found themselves stuck to a tarmac. This disrupted travel for more than 100,000 people as the airport was forced to temporarily close on a busy holiday weekend.
The airport in southern Germany, the country’s second-largest, was completely closed at 5:19 a.m. (03:19 GMT) and remained so for almost two hours, Bavaria’s Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU) said.
According to the airport association, more than 100,000 passengers were affected. Several planes had to be diverted to other airports. A plane with an emergency patient on board was therefore only able to land 20 minutes late, the authorities said.
The new protest triggered a wave of criticism from politicians.
“This was another absolutely mindless action by climate-chaotic people. Disrupting air traffic with such blockages – at the beginning of the travel season – is not only reckless, but also potentially endangers the lives of many people,” said Hermann from the conservative Bavarian CSU.
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser wrote on
Transport Minister Volker Wissing said: “This is not a legitimate protest, but a targeted intervention in air traffic.” He said that people are at risk if air traffic is not safe and that this could also cause economic damage. He called for a “tightening” of the aviation security law.
The managing director of the airport association (ADV), Ralph Beisel, called for harsher penalties.
The airport was initially closed for security reasons, airport officials and the federal police said.
After about two hours, one of the two runways was reopened, followed around an hour later by the second runway.
Around 1,000 take-offs and landings are planned in Munich on Saturday, said an airport spokesman. Due to the tight timing of flights, there will be delays even after the runways reopen. Passengers departing from the airport on Saturday should check with their airline, he recommended.
The Last Generation reported on X that six people settled in groups of two at different locations at Munich Airport.
Numerous police and firefighters were on site to remove the activists. According to Herrman, the six activists and two others who did not make it onto the tarmac were arrested. They are under investigation and face prison sentences.
The climate activists cut through the security fence in four places at the same time and eight tried to enter the area from the four different points at the same time, said a federal police spokesman.
Munich Airport was expecting a large number of holidaymakers; a total of around 350,000 passengers were expected from Friday to Sunday. The airport was expected to handle 2,860 flights during this period.
Overall, 7% more flights were registered during the Pentecost holidays, the second big travel wave of the year after Easter, than in the previous year, the airport reported before the holidays began.
Many countries, including Germany, have a public holiday on the day after Pentecost, the 50th day after Easter.
Last Generation said it wanted to specifically disrupt the start of the holiday weekend.
The group wants politicians to take more decisive action in the face of climate change. At the end of January, she announced that she would forego road blockades and concentrate on “places of fossil destruction” – airports were specifically mentioned. Similar actions have already been carried out at German airports in the past.
Aviation accounts for almost 10% of Germany’s responsibility for global warming. Activists criticized the aviation industry as being subsidized by the state by waiving paraffin tax and VAT.
