FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Flights were suspended at Germany’s busiest airport on Thursday after environmental activists took to the ground on airport grounds, authorities said, with more than 100 flights canceled.
Federal police said several protesters entered the airport in the early hours of the morning, German news agency DPA reported. The Last Generation group said six protesters had cut a hole in the perimeter fence and made their way to the runway on foot, bicycles and skateboards.
Flight operations were “gradually resuming” at the airport, it said shortly before 8 a.m. Shortly after, the airport announced on social network X that all runways had reopened.
The airline said about 140 flights have been cancelled so far, roughly one-tenth of all flights scheduled for Thursday.
It is the second time in recent days that Last Generation protests, which are calling on the German government to negotiate and sign an international agreement to phase out the use of oil, gas and coal globally by 2030, have caused disruption at a German airport.
Five protesters took to the taxiways at Cologne-Bonn airport on Wednesday, halting flights for nearly three hours. The protests led to the cancellation of 31 flights. There have been protests and attempted protests in other European countries as well.
A series of airport protests in recent years has disrupted flight operations.
Last week, Germany’s cabinet approved a bill that would impose tougher penalties on those who breach airport perimeters.
The bill, which still needs to be approved by lawmakers, envisages imposing a prison sentence of up to two years on anyone who knowingly trespasses on airside areas of airports, such as taxiways or runways, thereby endangering civil aviation or contributing to the endangerment of others. So far, such trespassing can only be punished by a fine. In some cases, it could be punished by a prison sentence of up to five years.
