OAlthough the number of flight movements in Frankfurt in the first half of this year was almost 30 percent below the values in the same period of the last year before the crisis, 2019, the number of delayed flights within the night-time ban between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. has risen sharply in recent months. For example, the starts between 11 p.m. and midnight in April and May have almost reached the level of 2019 and even exceeded it in June. This emerges from the explanations given by the aircraft noise protection officer of the state of Hesse, Regine Barth, to the Frankfurt aircraft noise protection commission.
It should be noted that for departures after 11:00 p.m., an individual permit from the Hessian Ministry of Transport’s aviation authority is required for each take-off. This is only granted if the airline had no influence on the delay. If she has made her flight plan too tight, no take-off permission will be given. If storms or other circumstances beyond the airline’s control cause the delay, the flight can usually be delayed. In the case of delayed landings, no authorization is required between 11 p.m. and midnight. However, this also only applies in the event that this delay does not result from the flight plan. After midnight, normal flights are still not allowed to take off or land in Frankfurt.
Create more circulations per machine
According to the Hessian Ministry of Transport, tourist airlines in particular use the last hour before midnight for landings. You make full use of the scope to make more rounds per machine and fly profitably. At the top is TUI fly with 29.8 percent, followed by Condor with 22.8 percent.
Lufthansa follows in third place with around 21 percent, followed by its tourism subsidiary Eurowings Discover with 13.7 percent. The other airlines have a cumulative share of 12.6 percent. The airlines of the Lufthansa Group together account for 34.7 percent of delayed landings. However, the Lufthansa Group in Frankfurt also provides a large part of the entire traffic. Before the start of the corona pandemic, it was around two thirds of the volume.
The delays in European air traffic and the conditions at a number of large airports such as Frankfurt are not only due, but also to an unexpectedly large rush of people who want to travel, who are encountering a severely thinned staffing base at airports and airlines – and the difficulty of finding new staff quickly Find. Lufthansa reacted to this and recently canceled another 2,000 flights, especially on short-haul routes, “to relieve the system”. For the same reason, Fraport now wants to apply to the German air traffic control in Langen to further reduce the limit of take-offs and landings per hour from 96 to just 88. Air traffic control repeatedly intervenes in what is happening at Frankfurt Airport for safety reasons. The Hessian Ministry of Transport then identifies such interventions as an ATC capacity bottleneck (air traffic control).
There are currently a number of exceptional reasons for such intervention by air traffic control. These contribute significantly to the difficulties in European air traffic: the air traffic flows are shifting after the airspace closures over Russia and Ukraine. In addition, French air traffic control is in the process of introducing a new air traffic control system. For safety reasons, it has therefore allowed less traffic in its airspace than usual since April. In addition, there is more military air traffic over Europe, which can also be attributed to the war in Ukraine and further reduces the capacity for civil aviation.
Runway West and the tailwind
Less spectacular, but no less unfavorable, is the fact that the west runway often has to be taken out of flight operations due to strong tailwinds, which has been necessary several times this month.
Despite all these obstacles, the airport operator Fraport and Lufthansa have recently shown themselves confident of keeping the system functional at the beginning of the Hessian summer holidays.
