For one million euros

Frankfurt Airport is now suing climate campaigners

(Bild: AP)

The Frankfurt airport operator Fraport estimates the loss caused by the protest action of climate protection activists at the end of July at one million euros. "We will file a lawsuit against these people because of the losses," said CFO Matthias Zieschang at a conference with financial analysts on Tuesday.

Seven activists from the "Last Generation" group - which announced an end to protests of this kind in Austria on Tuesday - had entered the airport grounds on July 25 and blocked taxiways.

270 flights canceled in Frankfurt
They want to use such actions to draw attention to the climate impact of flying. Operations in Frankfurt were disrupted for several hours and around 270 of a total of 1,300 flights were canceled that day.

Hundreds of flights were canceled due to the climate sticker campaign in Frankfurt.(Bild: AFP/AFP )

In Vienna-Schwechat, protests by the "Last Generation" did not get this far recently. However, Vienna Airport also intends to take legal action against the group's activism in airport halls, even though the actions did not lead to any significant delays in operations.

Debate about security at airports
The renewed actions by climate activists at airports triggered a discussion on how security could be improved. Such actions are a trend, are to be expected in the future and there is no way to avoid them, explained Zieschang. "It is absolutely impossible to protect an airport with kilometers of fences - you can't build a new German wall."

Germany's largest airport is surrounded by 30 kilometers of fencing. The Fraport manager added that the security forces had reacted quickly so that nobody was harmed.