Anyone who travels by plane now could be something special among friends.
Air traffic is only slowly getting back on its feet.
But the industry should use the crisis for a new start.
Schönefeld (dpa) - Finally sun, finally holidays - but finally also fly?
More holidaymakers are checking in at airports these days than they have been for a long time.
But it's not the same as before Corona.
And the question is whether it will ever be that way again.
Because the pandemic is subsiding, but the climate crisis is still there.
The word flight shame is already in the Duden, not only the Greens want to make domestic flights superfluous.
If the going gets tough, half as many Germans will fly this holiday season as before Corona, according to the industry.
In the pandemic, according to a study by the University of Passau, many shy away from air travel and prefer to take the car.
The federal government believes that very few people wanted to do without flights to Mallorca in the long term.
"People are a bit starved of travel," said aerospace coordinator Thomas Jarzombek of the German press agency.
The steep growth curve of air traffic, it will not be reversed by Corona, but will only get a dent.
Industry and the federal government are looking for ways to "fly green".
Because there is a lot at stake: aviation secures tens of thousands of well-paid jobs and cutting-edge research, is an important economic factor.
But the road to climate neutrality is very long.
For the National Aviation Conference on Friday, Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) increased the pressure: Disruptive innovations are necessary "not at any point, but as quickly as possible".
From the Chancellor's point of view, air traffic must switch to renewable energy sources as soon as possible.
Lufthansa boss Carsten Spohr said how expensive it was.
Merkel explained: In the 90s, she didn't think that solar cells would one day be profitable.
"We stand for a responsible, sustainable ecological restructuring of the industry", assures the Federal Association of the German Aerospace Industry. How can that work? With more economical aircraft, the admixture of biofuels as in cars, then with synthetic fuels, later with hydrogen propulsion.
The aircraft manufacturer Airbus wants to bring the first emission-free hydrogen aircraft onto the market by 2035.
But Germany wants to be climate neutral as early as 2045.
Aviation coordinator Jarzombek believes that this will be possible on the short-haul route to Mallorca.
“It's more difficult with intercontinental traffic.” Hydrogen and synthetic fuels offer a lot of potential, as well as better flight routes and new engines.
But the airlines may have to continue planting trees in order to become theoretically CO2-neutral.
Tarek Al-Wazir, the green economy minister of Hesse, where the largest German airport is located in Frankfurt, does not see that people should continue to fly as much as they did before Corona.
Otherwise, 40 percent of our total electricity consumption would be used to produce synthetic fuels for flying with the help of electricity.
Replacing more short distances with train journeys, the demand can now also be heard from airport managers.
"You can save 20 percent of domestic German flights relatively quickly by better connecting the airports to long-distance traffic," says Jarzombek.
Munich in particular has some catching up to do.
However, the government does not want to rely on the railways alone, because the planning and construction of new routes also takes many years.
"From around 2035, electric flying must become the standard in Germany," said Jarzombek.
From the aviation industry's point of view, it is a “Herculean task”.
The companies rely on government aid worth billions - also so that they can keep up with the ticket prices of competitors, for example from golf, which are less ambitious in terms of the climate.
From the government's point of view, a plane ticket should not become a luxury good.
"I would like that not only the chief physician can go on vacation with a family, but also the nurse," said Federal Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer (CSU).
"We will travel, but we will travel differently."
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210618-99-51758 / 4
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