The left wants to ban private jets from taking off and landing at Munich Airport. The currently increasing numbers in this area of aviation are “a fatal signal in times of climate crisis,” says an application to the city of Munich. In it, Mayor Dieter Reiter (SPD) and economics officer Clemens Baumgärtner (CSU) are called upon to advocate for the ban as Munich representatives on the airport’s supervisory board. The left cited Amsterdam Airport as a model, for which such a ban has already been decided. It should come into force in 2025 or 2026.
Munich Airport belongs to the federal government, the Free State of Bavaria and the city of Munich. According to Study commissioned by Greenpeace It is one of the top three in Germany when it comes to take-offs and landings of private jets. In 2022, for example, the study recorded exactly 500 flights on the route from Munich to London and back alone. City Councilor Jagel calls on the Greens in particular to support the initiative to reduce CO2 emissions. They would co-govern two of the three owners, namely the city and the federal government – now they should “clearly show their colors” when it comes to the ban on private jets, he said.
A second airport in the Munich area was also included in the study for take-offs and landings of private jets: the airport in Oberpfaffenhofen. These are the shortest and therefore most environmentally harmful flights of private jets because a particularly large amount of fuel is used during take-offs and landings. No fewer than 133 flights to Munich Airport or in the opposite direction are listed for 2022. The flight distance is given as 48.15 kilometers.
In order to draw attention to their initiative, the left-wing state spokeswoman and leading state election candidate Adelheid Rupp and the parliamentary group leader in the Munich city council, Stefan Jagel, and a few helpers had 1,205 paper airplanes take off and land in the pedestrian zone on Sendlinger Straße. According to the study, that is ten percent of the flight movements of private jets at Munich Airport. According to the European Organization for Aviation Safety Eurocontrol, there were 94,000 takeoffs of private jets in the business segment across Germany in 2022 – more than ever before. In the climate crisis, action must be taken where it is easily possible, said Rupp. Flights with private jets, especially for short distances, are “luxury emissions” that we want to prevent in the future.