This Monday 12 June the largest military exercise ever organised in the European Union and in Germany for decades. Coordinated by NATO, these manoeuvres are designed to train the alliance's air force troops for rapid deployment in the event of an attack. Russia in particular.
The logistics involved are extremely complex, requiring months of preparation. From 12 to 23 June, 10,000 soldiers from 25 countries will be training for the deployment of air forces. Nearly 250 aircraft - carriers as well as combat aircraft - will take off and land. The United States alone has transferred more than 100 aircraft to German airports.
These manoeuvres are not without consequences for civil aviation. The military airports involved in the exercise are Jagel/Hohn in Schleswig-Holstein, Wunstorf in Lower Saxony, Lechfeld in Bavaria and Spangdahlem in Rhineland-Palatinate for Germany. Volkel in the Netherlands and Caslav in the Czech Republic. They serve as the base for three large zones over Germany reserved exclusively for military aircraft for several hours during the week. The southern zone extends more or less over Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate. It is closed between 1pm and 5pm. It would therefore affect airports as important as those of Munich or Stuttgart.
Even busier skies in Germany
In the north, the corridor stretches from Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein to above the North Sea. This is where the soldiers plan to train between 4pm and 8pm. This will certainly affect an airport like Hamburg. The third airspace is to the east of the country, over Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and the Baltic Sea. It is closed to airliners between 10am and 2pm.
According to Eurocontrol, 800 daily flights in European airspace, mainly in Germany, will therefore have to be cancelled. keep air corridors clear for military aircraft. If we are not talking about banning civil flights, the problem is the congestion of air routes. The closure of airspace in Ukraine is putting a huge strain on the capacity of Europe's skies. It is estimated that more than 50% additional aircraft are now flying over Germany.
The problem is that the coordination of air movements requires clockwork precision. Diverting aircraft from their traditional routes will therefore contribute to destabilise traffic. With a possible cascade of cancellations. In the worst-case scenario, Eurocontrol estimates that the NATO exercise will result in a cumulative delay of 50,000 minutes over one day!
Airports and civil aviation authorities have been working on solutions to adapt air traffic civil military constraints. In particular, German airports could remain open longer at night to accommodate delayed flights. However, everything will be done on a case-by-case basis, particularly after two or three days of actual manoeuvres in German skies. The federal government is trying to be optimistic, explaining that the impact on civil air traffic will be kept to a minimum. One thing has already been confirmed: there will be no military exercises at night or at weekends.
