South Germany NATO exercise causes flight delays

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As part of NATO’s “Air Defender” exercise, approximately 220 military aircraft from 18 countries will fly over three German airspaces from 12 to 23 June. One of them is in the south of Germany, in the district of Lechfeld in Bavaria, just 150 kilometers from Lake Constance.

Restricted areas have been established for NATO flight activities from Monday to Friday. As a result, capacities in southern German airspace will also be restricted for all air traffic. In southern Germany and in the Lake Constance region, there are waiting loops and approach zones for Zurich Airport. This means that air traffic in Switzerland is also affected.

“Both airlines and air traffic control in Europe are trying to minimize the impact,” said Prisca Huguenin-dit-Lenoir, spokesperson for the Swiss air traffic control organization Skyguide. Still, delays or even cancellations of flights across Europe “especially in bad weather” cannot be ruled out. He advises passengers to learn about the changes in flight times in time during this period.

Switzerland established a working group

Swiss Spokesperson Karin Montani said, “The detailed planning of flight times and flight routes over Germany during the exercise period has not been completed yet.” Concrete effects on the functioning of Switzerland cannot yet be fully estimated. Swiss controls them in close cooperation with other airlines, authorities and organisations. Among other things, Eurocontrol performs simulations of planned NATO flight activities and their corresponding effects. “We need these analyzes to be able to predict exactly how big the consequences will be for Swiss flight operations,” says Montani.

To keep the impact on passengers as low as possible, Swiss set up its own working group. “As soon as the effects on flight operations become clear, Swiss will provide transparent information,” Montani said.

Another factor in delays

This exercise, and with it the risk of further delays in air traffic, comes at the worst possible time. At Zurich Airport, the punctuality of departures in the first quarter of 2023 was 68 percent; 72 percent of flights in Switzerland started on time.

But in most cases, the problem does not occur on its own. According to Swiss, strikes by air traffic controllers and ground organizations in various European countries are the main reason. Switzerland, with its central location in Europe, is affected to an above-average extent. In addition, there are problems with infrastructure (e.g. security checks) and weather events at Zurich Airport: For example, when there is a westerly wind, runways in Zurich need to be changed so that crossing approaches and departures have a maximum take-off and landing capacity of 33 percent. is reduced by up to .

The NATO exercise now adds one more external factor to all these problems.

Source :Blick