"Greenpeace works with sleight of hand".

Press release of the IDRF - Interessengemeinschaft regionalen Flugplätze e.V. from 04.04.23:

Interessengemeinschaft der regionalen Flugplätzen e.V. (IDRF): Individual flights increased by only seven percent

"Greenpeace is simply working dishonestly to generate headlines," emphasizes IDRF Managing Director Thomas Mayer. This is because the calculated increase of 64 percent results from the comparison of 2022 with the previous year, which recorded extremely low traffic due to the Corona crisis. If the 2022 figures were compared with the last pre-Corona year, 2019, the result would be an increase in Europe of only seven percent. "On top of that, Greenpeace stigmatizes individual mobility and deliberately refrains from putting it in relation to total air traffic," Mayer emphasizes. The proportion of purely private flights is vanishingly small.

The ratio to business traffic is inversely proportional to road traffic, he said. The fact that the number of aircraft movements to Corona has increased is not surprising, he says. "But instead of immediately calling for bans, as Greenpeace does, we should look into the reasons for this trend," Mayer explains. One of them, for example, is based on the steady decline in regular decentralized flight connections in Germany and Europe, he says. "As airports and part of the public infrastructure, we regret the development and would like to see more offerings." New operating concepts with innovative environmentally friendly engines and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) could provide a remedy. In this way, the advantages of air transport such as low landscape consumption, far lower infrastructure-related emissions, speed and efficiency could be harnessed. Sustainable fuels would also be in high demand, especially from private pilots. Mayer: "Unfortunately, due to failures elsewhere, they are not yet available in Germany."

The Interessengemeinschaft der regionalen Flugplätzen e.V. (IDRF e.V.) is an association of currently 74 regional commercial airports and airfields and a total of 130 members, founded in July 2005. As a community of interests for decentralized aviation, the IDRF is committed to the optimal use of existing facilities and capacities as well as the demand-oriented maintenance and expansion of a nationwide air traffic infrastructure in Germany.