The Working Group of German Airports held a two-day committee meeting at the beginning of this week. In the course of this, people are criticizing the policies of the German federal government.
“Germany needs economically strong and sustainably positioned airports to guarantee the necessary connectivity to global economic and trade networks. What is worrying is the continuing rise in the proportion of regulatory-related taxes and fees. In Germany this is 30 percent of an airline's total location costs. The current increase in aviation tax is causing the burden to continue to grow. The share of government taxes and fees doubles compared to 2019, without the airports having any influence. Such serious additional burdens lead to a further loss of competition and ultimately to a weakening of the German business location. Germany is falling behind in the recovery and is at the bottom of the list in Europe. The recovery rate compared to the pre-Corona period is sometimes less than 80 percent, while air traffic in our European neighboring countries has returned to old records,” said ADV President Stefan Schulte. “For efficient and sustainable development, Germany’s airports need the support of the federal and state governments. German airports must not continue to lose out in the international competition for airlines and new connections. It is essential that funding commitments made are not withdrawn. Necessary investment decisions in the transformation process to climate neutrality are designed to last for years and cannot simply be revised. For Germany to be a sustainable aviation location, a triad of performance, profitability and competitiveness is required. On the one hand, the aviation industry is being put under an additional burden by the increase in air traffic tax, but on the other hand, important future investments, such as the purchase of electrified vehicles, the expansion of the charging infrastructure or the support for climate-neutral flying, are being cut or stagnating below requirements. Other funding programs, such as climate-friendly ground electricity at airports, were set to zero. This is not nearly enough to drive the transformation needed. The high regulatory costs and the planned cuts make the transformation process significantly more difficult. The ADV airports did not hesitate and made the commitment to be climate neutral by 2045 at the latest. At that time we could be sure of political support, but it was crumbling. As much as I hate to say it, trust in the reliability of political commitments has been damaged.”
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