- Activists disrupt Frankfurt Airport flights
- 140 out of 1,400 flights canceled
- Police detained eight; protests ongoing
Frankfurt, Germany’s largest airport, was forced to postpone arrivals and departures following a protest by climate activists who glued themselves to the runways.
Frankfurt Airport, one of the country’s busiest airports and a primary international gateway, advised passengers on Thursday to check the status of their flights due to the “ongoing demonstration.
While operations resumed and all four runways were operational a few hours later, an airport official reported that approximately 140 of the 1,400 scheduled flights had been canceled.
The climate activist group Letzte Generation (The Last Generation), which organized the action, said in a statement that six of its members used pincers to cut openings in the airport wire fence before traveling “by foot, with bicycles and skateboards to different points around the runways.
Protesters also hung banners on the tarmac that said, “Oil kills.”
The demonstration was labeled “dangerous, dumb, and criminal” by German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, whose ministry seeks to prosecute unauthorized airfield access with up to two years in prison.
“These actions must be punished more severely. “We have proposed harsh prison sentences,” she wrote in a post on X.
According to the German news agency DPA, police have detained eight persons.
The group, which wants the German government to pursue a global deal to phase out oil, gas, and coal by 2030, has identified many places in Europe and North America where similar disruptions are expected.
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The Last Generation is also a member of the A22 Network, an organization dedicated to nonviolent climate protests, and has announced plans to disrupt airports in various nations in the coming months.
According to Our World in Data, a research organization, worldwide aviation accounts for approximately 2.5 percent of global carbon emissions and contributes “around 4% to global warming.
Thursday followed similar rallies at various European airports, including London’s Heathrow, where many campaigners were arrested on Wednesday.
Four activists spilled an orange material into one of the airport’s corridors while holding banners that said “Oil kills” in Vienna, Austria.
On Wednesday, the Last Generation protestors briefly stopped traffic at Cologne-Bonn Airport by gluing themselves to a runway.
Activist Ronja Kuenkler told reporters that Wednesday’s protest was only the beginning. She declined to say whether any action was planned for the Paris Olympics 2024, which begins on Friday.
