The European Football Championship will take place in Germany in June and July 2024. The Ministry of Transport expects that there will be an increased volume of traffic as a result. It is planned that the otherwise rigid night flight restrictions will be temporarily relaxed at a total of ten commercial airports.
It is planned that for the four-week duration of the sporting event, which will be held in various cities in Germany, at the ten airports in the catchment area of Berlin, Dortmund, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt am Main, Gelsenkirchen, Hamburg, Leipzig, Cologne, Munich and Stuttgart should come to special rules for aviation. Specifically, the night flight restrictions are to be temporarily lifted. This is intended to enable fan flights, but also those of the teams, to be carried out even in the event of extra time or even a penalty shootout. It is not yet a done deal, because the Federal Ministry of Transport is aware that it is a “hot topic” because there could be resistance from residents at one or another airport.
A federal regulation is not sufficient. The countries in which the ten airports are located also have to “play along” because the night flight bans fall within the competence of the respective state government. However, significant resistance is not expected, especially since it is unlikely that all ten airports in the stadium catchment area will actually have many extraordinary night flights.
The planned relaxation of night flight restrictions offers airlines the opportunity to launch special fan flights. This cannot be avoided because simply “keeping it open” for the football teams would inevitably lead to competition law problems. According to reports, some providers are still waiting for developments, but are already planning special flights to the matches in the background, both within Germany and internationally. However, a lot of things have to be done at short notice, as many exciting encounters only occur after the basic round and the outcome of the group phase cannot be predicted.
According to a report by the Rheinische Post, which refers to the corresponding concept paper, it is not the fans who will primarily benefit from any possible lifting of night flight restrictions, but rather the football teams. If possible, visitors will be allowed to travel by train or bus. It is being considered that the area surrounding the football stadiums - at least on the motorways - should be kept free of construction sites if possible in order to avoid delays. The Ministry of Transport is also thinking about offering special fan tickets for rail transport.
Accordingly, around 14 additional trains should run per match day. The price for use in long-distance transport should be an impressive 29,90 euros. Remarkably, the use of local transport - i.e. buses, express trains and regional trains - should be included in the admission price at no extra charge. In addition, they want to offer a temporary discount of 25 percent on the Interail pass.
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