The federal government only wants to help larger airports directly

Berlin (dpa) – At German airports there is one thing above all in these difficult Corona times: empty. The number of passengers has collapsed almost unprecedented.

The economic pressure on the airports has increased immensely, the industry sees thousands of jobs threatened. In this situation, the federal government has now agreed on financial aid – also for airports in which the federal government is not involved.

In the case of many airports, the states and municipalities in particular are co-owners – not least for structural reasons. An airport nearby is supposed to boost the local economy. However, this infrastructure is threatened by Corona. Environmental groups have long thought little of keeping small, deficit airports alive, also for reasons of climate protection.

Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer made it clear that he did not want to hear about closings. In the crisis he was an “infrastructure maintenance minister”, said the CSU man – and not an “infrastructure dismantling minister”.

Scheuer proposed a 50-50 model between the federal and state governments last fall to help airports. Specifically, it is about the reimbursement of costs for keeping airports open at the beginning of the corona pandemic. Because in the lockdown in March and April, airports were kept open at the request of politicians, despite the dramatic slump in passenger numbers – so that German tourists could be brought home from abroad and masks and medication could be transported.

After the federal states had approved the model in principle, negotiations between Scheuer’s house and the finance department of Olaf Scholz (SPD) were mainly about which airports should receive help – and in what form. According to reports, there were reservations in the SPD parliamentary group in particular about excessive aid against small airports. The debate was also about whether the federal government should participate in airports if it was already giving money.

But that was rejected: because then a scenario would have threatened that the federal government would have a permanent stake in airports and would have to keep injecting more money – as is the case at the capital city airport BER. The Ministry of Transport and Finance therefore agreed on the instrument of non-repayable grants as a one-off aid – for the airports in Bremen, Dresden, Düsseldorf, Erfurt, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Hanover, Leipzig, Münster / Osnabrück, Nuremberg, Saarbrücken and Stuttgart.

Specifically, it concerns a sum of the federal government of 200 million euros and the cost of maintaining the airports from March to the end of June 2020. In addition, the federal government is investing around 400 million euros in the three airports with federal participation, in addition to Berlin, these are Munich and Cologne-Bonn.

The prerequisites for the support of the federal government are that the respective federal states make a subsidy of the same amount, no dividends are distributed for 2020 and no bonuses are paid to managing directors and board members of the operating companies.

The background to the payments to the 12 airports without federal participation is an old list in which the federal government recognizes a “transport policy interest” in the airports. Conversely, this means that airports such as Dortmund, Paderborn, Weeze or Friedrichshafen have to get by without direct federal funding. With these it is now the turn of the owners.

This also applies to small regional airports. The federal government wants to cover the costs of air navigation services for them. So far, the small airports have borne these costs themselves and cannot always pass them on to the airlines. In the 2021 federal budget, 20 million euros have already been earmarked for this support measure, which may now be consolidated. In the coalition it is said behind closed doors that this would be a significant relief – but possibly not the rescue for individual airports.

Scheuer said on Friday that all in all an “all-round coherent overall package” to preserve the German air traffic infrastructure had succeeded. “The federal government will support the 15 most important German airports with a total of more than 600 million euros.” The airports were hit hard by the corona pandemic: Maintaining the infrastructure is in the social interest.

The Airport Association ADV spoke of an important directional decision to stabilize the airport infrastructure. Chief Executive Ralph Beisel said the airport’s corona-related losses were increasing day by day. The aid should now be paid out quickly.

At the same time, the ADV appeal not to forget the smaller locations. They ensured the urgently needed transport connections in the regions and contributed to strengthening the economic power there. Beisel: “I am glad that the federal government has given the promise to assume the sovereign costs for air traffic control.” Without this burden, most locations would have been in the black for years.

The Verdi union also welcomes the package of measures. The deputy chairwoman Christine Behle commented: “In this dramatic and extremely stressful situation this is an important signal of support also for the employees at the airports.”

© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210212-99-406329 / 4

Source: DPA