With clear demands, the working group of German commercial airports is turning towards politics, because the slow recovery of the industry compared to other EU countries gives not entirely unjustified concern that Germany could increasingly “hang out”. 

In both Austria and Germany, the governments in office reacted to the appearance of Greta Thunberg and her supporters. Under the motto "Flying must become more expensive for the climate", ticket taxes were increased in the middle of a difficult phase of the corona pandemic. However, not all of the projects were actually implemented, because the announcement by Austria's Minister of Transport Leonore Gewessler (Greens) that minimum prices of around 2020 euros for air tickets would be introduced from September 40 has not been implemented to date and in general it was about the project that according to its "Climate Protection Ministry" has been in the "final phase" for many months, very calmly.  

Even the then state secretary and current finance minister, Magnus Brunner (ÖVP), expressed concerns from the outset that Gewessler's dream could be reconciled with EU law and international aviation agreements. The minister, who wants to ban private jets in Austria, but who herself often travels with business jets, which according to one of her spokesmen are not business jets at all because they would be airlines on demand, has not adhered to the minimum prices she has announced for what feels like an eternity expressed for plane tickets. 

In the Federal Republic of Germany, the "political climate" displayed towards aviation is less characterized by populist announcements, but it is not particularly friendly either. Unlike other EU countries, little action has been taken to help the industry recover. Supply and demand are also still lagging behind pre-crisis levels. In many other EU member states, it was at least possible to reach pre-crisis levels or, in many cases, to exceed them. 

Inner-German traffic has not even reached half of the pre-crisis volume 

Although the most recent figures from the ADV, which take into account the period between January and April 2023, show that Germany's airports are also on the way to recovery, they are lagging behind their EU partners in some cases considerably. According to the industry association, it is particularly striking that the distribution among the individual traffic segments is extremely uneven. 

There were 33,3 million travelers in European traffic. This was 36 percent higher than in the previous year, but still 23,8 percent below the value in the same period of 2019. On long-haul routes, Germany's airports were able to increase by 2022 percent compared to 65,2, but are still 18,1 percent short of the pre-crisis level. 

It's really bad in domestic traffic. This had only 6,5 million passengers and thus 55,8 percent fewer than before the corona pandemic. Compared to the first four months of 2022, it was still possible to increase by 49,1 percent. The reasons for the continuing slump are less to be found in the sudden "flight shame" of the Germans, but rather in the fact that the offer - also due to the high flight tax - has been massively thinned out. For example, Easyjet, which was very frequent in Germany before Corona, flies almost nothing within the Federal Republic. Lufthansa and Eurowings have also reduced or thinned out their domestic German routes. 

The airports formulate three demands from their meeting: 

• Financial relief for air traffic to increase competitiveness: Germany's airports are losing market share to European competitors. With this development, Germany is at the lower end of the large European aviation markets. The development of the seats offered in Germany lags behind neighboring European countries by more than 10 percent. In Germany, the share of regulatory charges and fees is already over 30 percent of the total location costs. A level playing field with our European neighbors can only be achieved through a significant reduction in costs. 
• Strengthen direct international connectivity while protecting against unfair competition at the same time: German airports are losing international connectivity. Long-haul connectivity is lost. The decline in intercontinental routes, which are important for Germany's global network, is an alarm signal for Germany as a business location. Competing European air traffic locations are increasing in intercontinental traffic, in some cases significantly. A policy that puts millstones around the necks of our domestic airlines with taxes and regulations and seals off the markets for airlines from third countries is not achieving its goals. Air traffic in Germany will not be strengthened, nor will Germany as a business location benefit from international connectivity. 
• Airports between ecological transformation and economic performance: For a future-proof Germany as an air traffic location, you need a triad of performance, economy and competitiveness. To achieve this, innovative concepts for decarbonization must be resolutely promoted. The airports need political support and financial support for the climate policy transformation.