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European flights are being severely disrupted by climate activists glueing themselves to runways as part of their campaign to ban fossil fuels, despite threats of tougher prison sentences for protesters breaking into airports.
Frankfurt airport cancelled about 140 flights on Thursday after members of the Letzte (Last) Generation climate protest group cut through perimeter fencing and stuck themselves to the ground while holding “Oil Kills” banners.
The disruption to Germany’s busiest airport, which lasted about two hours before police arrested the activists and flights resumed, is part of a pan-European protest movement to disrupt airports across the region. About 30 flights were cancelled at Cologne-Bonn airport on Wednesday after activists brought its runways to a standstill for three hours.
German interior minister Nancy Faeser called the protests at Frankfurt airport “dangerous, dumb and criminal”.
“Anyone who blocks runways not only risks their own life, but also endangers others and harms all travellers,” Faeser wrote on X. “These acts must be punished more severely. We have proposed severe prison sentences.”
Fraport, which operates Frankfurt airport, said flight delays were expected for the rest of the day and recommended passengers check airline websites before travelling to the airport.
Protesters have also targeted airports in the UK, Norway, Austria, Switzerland, Spain and Finland in recent days. Police arrested several activists from the Just Stop Oil protest group close to the perimeter fence of London’s Heathrow airport on Wednesday on suspicion of conspiring to interfere with a site of critical national infrastructure under the Public Order Act.
In Norway, flights were disrupted at Oslo airport on Wednesday after activists from the Folk Mot Fossilmakta (People Against Fossil Fuel) group cut through the fence and sat next to the runway before being removed by police.
In Vienna, Austrian activists poured orange paint inside the airport terminal building, while several protesters were intercepted shortly after breaking into Barcelona airport and removed before they could disrupt flights. One of the Spanish protesters was arrested and others fined.
Since a similar protest disrupted flights at Munich airport in May, the German government is drafting legislation to introduce tougher sentences of up to two years in prison for people caught trespassing in airports and endangering civil aviation. Currently such intruders can only be fined.
In the UK this month, the High Court granted Heathrow airport an injunction to prohibit anyone from “entering, occupying or remaining” in its grounds in connection with any environmental campaign, which can be punished with up to two years in prison, fines and asset seizures.
Last week, five UK climate activists from the Just Stop Oil group were given record jail sentences for a non-violent protest under a new law, each serving a term of at least four years for their role in shutting down the M25 motorway in November 2022.
The quintet were found guilty of conspiracy to cause a public nuisance after they spoke on a Zoom call to recruit volunteers for the protest.
Letzte Generation said on its website this week that campaign groups from more than 10 countries mostly in Europe but also including the US and Canada had formed an “international alliance” to launch the “Oil Kills” campaign.
The movement “will stage protests at airports around the world in the next few weeks in a co-ordinated manner to counter global fossil destruction with peaceful determination”, it said. The aim is to push governments in these countries to agree “an international agreement to phase out fossil fuels by 2030”.
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