Sometimes all it takes is a dormouse. One such rodent recently paralysed the power supply to large parts of Frankfurt Airport for several hours. Fortunately, the rodents bit late in the evening, so air traffic was hardly affected, since there is a ban on night flights. However, it once again showed that an airport like this is susceptible to disruption. Indeed, external forces are increasingly at work. A few days before the dormouse, climate activists from the Last Generation had invaded Frankfurt Airport, and caused cancellations and delays at the largest airport in Germany.

As if that were not enough, extreme weather events, such as heavy rain, hail, or severe thunderstorms, have also repeatedly disrupted airport operations in recent years. With a tightly synchronised schedule such as the one at Frankfurt, such disruptions can have severe consequences for flight operations. And the numerous wage disputes in the aviation industry have the same effect — the Lufthansa subsidiary Discover is currently on strike.

Nonetheless, German airports have generally done their homework. After the chaos in summer 2022, processes were streamlined, and staff were hired so that things ran much more smoothly in 2023, and also this summer.

But air traffic as a whole in Germany is lagging behind growth elsewhere. The industry primarily blames the political sphere, imposing high costs on both airports and airlines, for lagging behind. „Government charges for air traffic have almost doubled in Germany since 2020,“ calculates Jens Bischof, President of the German Aviation Association (BDL) and CEO of Eurowings. „In contrast, other European airports, which will have reached or already exceeded pre-crisis levels for 2024, are primarily characterised by significantly lower government levies compared to German locations.“

Airport operator Fraport can observe the consequences of this unequal development. While the Group's investments in Greece and Turkey reported new passenger records in the past financial year, the most important location, Frankfurt, only achieved a volume of 84% compared to the pre-corona level. Fraport CEO Stefan Schulte also views the high costs at the location as the reason for this. „The industry needs a political turnaround in order to be able to realise important projects, such as the switch to CO2-free operations,“ he says.

In the first half of 2024, the entire German aviation market will reach around 83% of pre-crisis passenger numbers, while Europe as a whole will reach 99%. In the case of point-to-point airlines, for which low costs are the basis of the business model, the volume in the German market only reached 71% of the 2019 figure. „European point-to-point airlines are avoiding German airports,“ says Bischof. Ryanair has just announced its intention to reduce the number of flights from BER.

The BDL cites the poor development at Stuttgart Airport as an example of medium-sized airports in Germany. Stuttgart has recently lost 19 destinations, mainly due to the withdrawal of point-to-point airlines. „This worsens the connection of important European markets to the centre of the German mechanical engineering industry,“ the association complains.

In addition to the burdens in Germany, such as the air traffic tax, there are also the requirements of the EU climate protection package „Fit for 55“ at the EU, which the aviation industry believes distorts competition. The increasing addition of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), for example, is increasing airlines' costs and is likely to result in more expensive tickets. European carriers have to refuel with the more expensive SAF in the mix for the entire route from Europe to Asia, for example. In contrast, airlines with connecting hubs outside the EU only have to do so for the shorter leg from Europe to their hub in the Persian Gulf or Turkey. „This means a significant annual cost advantage for these airlines - and no progress in climate protection due to carbon leakage,“ says Bischof.

The future development feared by the BDL can already be seen today in the passenger flows from Germany to Asia. According to the German Aerospace Center (DLR), more and more travellers are already changing planes at hubs outside the EU. From 2010 to 2024, the proportion of transfer passengers at non-EU hubs has already risen from 38% to 57%. By contrast, the proportion of non-stop traffic to Asia and connecting flights via European hubs fell from 62% to 42%.