The corona pandemic brought some German airports into financial difficulties. This not only affects “castles in the air”, which were downright billion-dollar graves for subsidies even before the crisis, but also locations that made high profits last year. Now CSU Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer is holding out the prospect of short-term help.

Local media reports that the politician is said to have said that his department would provide one billion euros in the short term to support ailing airports. Some federal states, such as North Rhine-Westphalia, have already provided loan guarantees and / or grants in isolated cases. The federal government has so far been cautious.

The airport association ADV has repeatedly pointed out that many German airports are all about survival. The situation is so fatal that some have to file for bankruptcy without any help. Paderborn already had to go to the bankruptcy judge. According to industry representatives, the “German forced quarantine”, which will apply from November 8, 2020, even if you can present a negative PCR test, will further exacerbate the situation. It is required that the federal government assume at least the maintenance costs that arose during the lockdown period in March and April 2020. Scheuer said that he said that one billion euros can be made available in the short term. Of course, he did not want to make any binding statements, but referred to a second “Aviation Summit”, which is to be held in virtual form on Friday. The ADV warns that many German airports could run out of money by mid-2021 at the latest.