As of: March 29, 2024, 6:46 a.m
By: Alina Schröder
Comments
Press
Split
Transporting letters by plane is a thing of history, for simple reasons. Some recipients will soon notice the stop.
Frankfurt – For more than 62 years, Deutsche Post transported letters across the country via domestic flights, but that is now over: On Thursday night, the last plane took off from Berlin shortly after midnight and flew to Stuttgart. The last six machines transported around 1.5 million letters weighing 53 tons by plane. This corresponds to around three percent of the volume of letters that were recently transported by the post office in Germany every day. In the future, air travel will be dispensed with.
No more mail by plane – “End the era with one laughing eye and one crying eye”
The main reasons for the stop include, on the one hand, the associated high costs of transport by plane. On the other hand, the negative climate balance plays a role. According to the company, CO₂ emissions per letter ultimately fall by a good 80 percent over land and are therefore significantly more climate-friendly.
“We are ending the era of overnight letter flights with a laughing and a crying eye,” said the responsible postal manager Marc Hitschfeld. “On the one hand, the transport of letters by plane within Germany can no longer be justified in times of climate change, also because there is no longer the same urgency with letters as there was decades ago.” In this respect, the end of German airmail is good news for the environment . On the other hand, a piece of postal history has just come to an end.
Deutsche Post will no longer transport letters domestically by plane. © Soeren Stache/dpa
Night flight post in operation since 1961
The so-called night airmail network officially went into operation on September 1, 1961, after the then post minister Richard Stücklen (CDU) signed a contract with Lufthansa. This should significantly speed up the delivery of letters over long distances. Over the years, air transport expanded. In 1996, there were 26 aircraft flying to 45 destinations - at that time Frankfurt was still serving as a hub. Letters weighing an average of 430 tons each were transported five nights a week.
After that, the demand for letters fell significantly due to digitalization and people's changing communication habits. As a result, the number of flights was gradually reduced. Lufthansa exited the business in 2008, and recently only four aircraft from TUIfly and two from Eurowings were still flying. They were normal passenger planes that were filled with yellow mail boxes to transport letters. The containers went into the belly of the plane, on the seats and in the hand luggage storage space. But only letters were loaded, not parcels.
Postal law is about to be comprehensively reformed
The post office is still legally obliged to deliver 80 percent of the letters posted to the recipient on the next working day. Because of this time pressure, they continued to rely on air transport even after the turn of the millennium, even though many people had long since resorted to emails, cell phone messages and chats for quick written communication.
My news
Quake in the construction industry: Read the bankruptcy of a large German real estate company
Shooting down of F-16 fighter jets: Putin threatens to attack NATO airfields read
Silent holiday before Easter – What are you allowed to do on Good Friday in Bavaria? read
Nasty scam with the Rosenheim cops: Actors pack with atrocities read out in their name
Cheese recall: Federal Office warns of health risks – according to the RKI, three groups are particularly susceptible to focus reading
She had planned Gottschalk's visit to BR completely differently: Schöneberger lost his composure
The outdated postal law is currently being comprehensively reformed. Although the amendment has not yet been passed, there is political consensus to ease the time pressure on the postal service. The company therefore no longer needs the flights and is already drawing a line in the sand.
Foreign mail will continue to be sent by plane
But how does the end of night flights affect recipients? Some of you may notice: Anyone expecting letters posted in distant regions of Germany might need a little more patience. The average transport time for letters will be slightly longer due to the end of transport flights - the post office does not say how much. In addition, Deutsche Post is also considering a delivery-free Monday.
However, the post office will not be able to do its mail business entirely without airplanes in the future: the company will continue to rely on airmail to some extent when writing abroad. These small quantities are carried as additional cargo in the belly of regular passenger aircraft.
(asc/dpa)