FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Flights at Frankfurt Airport, Germany’s busiest, were temporarily suspended Thursday after climate activists glued themselves to the ground at the airport, authorities said. More than 100 flights were canceled.
Federal police reported that several demonstrators were at the airport in the early morning, the German news agency dpa reported. Latest generation According to the group, six protesters punched holes in the fence and ran toward the runways on foot, bicycles and skateboards.
The airport reported shortly before 8 a.m. that flight operations were “gradually resuming.” Shortly after, it reported on the social network X that all runways were operational again.
About 140 flights have been cancelled so far, about a tenth of those scheduled for Thursday.
It was the second time in as many days that a protest by Last Generation, which is demanding that the German government negotiate and sign an international agreement on a global freeze on oil, gas and coal use by 2030, caused disruptions at a German airport.
On Wednesday, five protesters clung to a taxiway at Cologne Bonn Airportcausing flights to be halted for about three hours. That protest resulted in 31 cancelled flights. There were other protests or attempted protests in other European countries.
A series of protests at airports in recent years have led to disruptions to air traffic.
Last week, the German cabinet approved legislation that impose harsher penalties on people who breach airport boundaries.
The bill, which still needs to be approved by lawmakers, would impose penalties of up to two years in prison for people who intentionally trespass on airport airside areas, such as taxiways or runways, endangering civil aviation or enabling someone else to do so. So far, such trespassing can only result in a fine. In some cases, a sentence of up to five years would be possible.
