Germany has plans to provide additional monetary aid to its airports to preserve infrastructure and jobs.
According to a joint statement issued by the government and representatives of the aviation industry, over the next two weeks, the federal government will discuss with the states about financial options for airports.
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More joint efforts are required by the federal and state governments to financially secure the airports in the medium term, according to the document.
Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer earlier told Deutschlandfunk radio that the dipping passenger numbers have put 25%-30% of the approximate 180,000 jobs at German airports at risk.
To cover the costs of keeping airports operational, the German airport industry has demanded a compensation of around $1.2bn. However, this sum was not mentioned in the document, reported Reuters.
The government is also looking at covering the gap in revenue loss at air traffic control association Deutsche Flugsicherung (DFS) to prevent an increase in fees for airlines.
It also wants to increase profitable long-haul routes, which have been largely suspended. To enable this, it also planned to set up testing and quarantine procedures with health authorities.
Efforts to prevent ‘dumping prices’ for airline tickets in the future are also on by the Transport Ministry.
As the aviation industry struggles with collapsing demand, Berlin’s long-overdue new airport opened on 31 October after a delay of nine years and is not expected to generate enough revenue to pay back its debts.
