Frankfurt airport open again after climate activists block runway

Frankfurt, a vital international transit hub and one of Europe’s biggest airports, said around 140 flights had been canceled out of 1,400 planned on Thursday. Above, police, security and medical staff near the runways at the airport in Frankfurt on July 25, 2024. (Reuters)
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Updated 01 October 2024
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Frankfurt airport open again after climate activists block runway

  • Last Generation climate activists said in a statement that six protesters had cut through a fence and had reached various points around the Frankfurt airport runways

BERLIN: Frankfurt airport, Germany’s busiest, has resumed operations after suspending flights on Thursday morning when several climate activists blocked runways by gluing themselves to the tarmac.

Planes were able to take off and land again, the airport said on its website, but passengers were still advised to check on their flight status before setting off for the airport.

A spokesperson for Frankfurt, a vital international transit hub and one of Europe’s biggest airports, said around 140 flights had been canceled out of 1,400 planned on Thursday.

Last Generation climate activists said in a statement that six protesters had cut through a fence and had reached various points around the Frankfurt airport runways with posters reading “Oil kills.” Images released by the group showed protesters in orange safety vests with their hand glued to the tarmac.

A federal police spokesperson said several climate activists were on the airport grounds.

The group, which wants the German government to pursue a global agreement to exit oil, gas and coal by 2030, has listed several countries across Europe and North America where similar disruptions are planned as part of a protest campaign that began on Wednesday.

In Norway, around a dozen activists blocked a part of the check-in area of the Oslo Airport, in a second day of actions, but there was no disruption of flights to and from the Norwegian capital, an airport official said.

Germany’s Cologne-Bonn airport, the country’s sixth-largest, suspended flights for several hours on Wednesday after climate activists glued themselves to a runway, while similar actions at other European airports had been foiled by authorities.

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, whose ministry wants to punish unauthorized airfield access with up to two years in jail, called the action “dangerous, dumb and criminal.”


Mali, Burkina say restricting entry for US nationals in reciprocal move

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Mali, Burkina say restricting entry for US nationals in reciprocal move

ABIDJAN: Mali and Burkina Faso have announced travel restrictions on American nationals in a tit-for-tat move after the US included both African countries on a no-entry list.
In statements issued separately by both countries’ foreign ministries and seen Wednesday by AFP, they said they were imposing “equivalent measures” on US citizens, after President Donald Trump expanded a travel ban to nearly 40 countries this month, based solely on nationality.
That list included Syrian citizens, as well as Palestinian Authority passport holders, and nationals of some of Africa’s poorest countries including also Niger, Sierra Leone and South Sudan.
The White House said it was banning foreigners who “intend to threaten” Americans.
Burkina Faso’s foreign ministry said in the statement that it was applying “equivalent visa measures” on Americans, while Mali said it was, “with immediate effect,” applying “the same conditions and requirements on American nationals that the American authorities have imposed on Malian citizens entering the United States.”
It voiced its “regret” that the United States had made “such an important decision without the slightest prior consultation.”
The two sub-Saharan countries, both run by military juntas, are members of a confederation that also includes Niger.
Niger has not officially announced any counter-measures to the US travel ban, but the country’s news agency, citing a diplomatic source, said last week that such measures had been decided.
In his December 17 announcement, Trump also imposed partial travel restrictions on citizens of other African countries including the most populous, Nigeria, as well as Ivory Coast and Senegal, which qualified for the football World Cup to be played next year in the United States as well as Canada and Mexico.