News / Climate activists stuck to runway hold up cargo flights at Leipzig

Climate activists from Germany’s Letzte Generation (Last Generation) group blocked runways at Leipzig/Halle air cargo hub in the early hours of this morning, delaying cargo services for three hours.

The protest saw three activists attaching themselves to a taxiway, grounding night cargo flights and resulting in air cargo movement being suspended, said  airport spokesperson Uwe Schuhart

Two other activists were prevented from contact with the tarmac, according to German federal police.

Letzte Generation is demanding that the German government negotiate and sign an agreement on a global ban on the use of oil, gas and coal by 2030.

Climate activists have more typically targeted private, and sometimes passenger, jets and today’s protest follows demonstrations at Frankfurt and Cologne-Bonn airports that disrupted passenger flights.

Lena Johnsen, a spokesperson for Letzte Generation, told The Loadstar targeting cargo aircraft as well as private jets was a priority on the group’s agenda.

Leipzig/Halle Airport, a hub for DHL,  handles some 1.4m tonnes of air freight each year.

“We do not want to disturb people’s daily lives,” said Ms Johnsen. “DHL is making new contracts this week to prolong and extend their transportation until 2053. We need to get off of fossil fuel in total. So where are the means, the willingness to reduce all these emissions by the government?”

“We need to get off subsidies in air traffic, and especially the private jets, the short-distance flights and [cargo] transportation flights, because there are alternatives that are better, that are more sustainable.”