Last week an era ended in domestic German air traffic because Deutsche Post AG stopped so-called mail flights. These were most recently carried out nightly by Eurowings and Tuifly from Hanover, Munich and Stuttgart.

In September 1961, the then German Federal Postal Service began transporting letters within Germany by plane at night. The background was that the volume was increasing rapidly and due to legal regulations that have only recently changed, most letters had to be delivered the next day.

The peak of mail flights was reached in 1996, with around 45 flights being carried out at night. Altogether they had around 430 tonnes of letters on board. In most cases, normal passenger aircraft were used until recently. This was a nice bonus for Eurowings and Tuifly, as the jets used would otherwise have been parked overnight.

It is well known that the volume of letters has been declining for many years due to technical developments such as faxes and email. However, the postal service had to stick to the six machines that were chartered on nights until recently, as otherwise they would not have been able to meet the statutory delivery quota. Under the guise of “climate protection”, this has now been relaxed, so that the post office has given up night flights.

It remains to be seen whether the climate has much of this. The approximately 53 tons of letter mail have been transported through Germany by truck since postal flights were stopped. A “comeback” of rail mail is not planned.