On Monday, the Bundeswehr, together with its NATO partners, launched a large-scale exercise in German and neighboring airspace called “Air Defender 2023”. The maneuver has not yet had an effect on civil flight operations in Munich, as a spokesman for the airport said when asked. The spokesman could not say until noon whether there would be delays or even cancellations at a later date.
With more than 10,000 participants from 25 nations and more than 250 aircraft involved, “Air Defender” is the largest military air force deployment exercise in NATO’s history. It lasts until June 23rd.
According to information from Deutsche Flugsicherung (DFS), certain parts of German airspace are reserved for a limited period of time for military exercises and will then be temporarily unavailable for civil air traffic. The airspace over Munich is not directly affected. The southern of the three exercise airspaces in Germany extends from the Bavarian part of Swabia to Rhineland-Palatinate.
DFS announced that civilian flights would be diverted where necessary and given fixed departure times. If the planned number of flights exceeds the acceptable capacity for air traffic control reasons, delays could occur. Simulations by the European air traffic control agency Eurocontrol led us to expect that flight cancellations should not be expected in advance. However, flight delays and extended flight times will be “unavoidable”.