German aviation lobby warns of economic fallout as airlines withdraw over costs
The number of planes stationed in Germany has dropped from 190 in 2019 to 130 this year, resulting in an estimated loss of 10,000 jobs and 4 billion euros ($4.66 billion) in annual economic value added, BDL said.
'Since 2019, state-imposed costs have more than doubled, and airlines are increasingly avoiding Germany,' said BDL President Jens Bischof, urging the government to prioritize post-pandemic recovery in the aviation sector.
The industry has criticized Berlin's decision to postpone a planned reduction in aviation tax, arguing that reversing the May 2024 hike would have signaled support for carriers.
State levies, including taxes, air traffic control fees and security charges, are expected to rise by 1.1 billion to 4.4 billion euros this year, hampering recovery, said BDL.
Passenger numbers rose just 3 percent in the first half of the year to 99.4 million, far below the 10 percent growth seen a year earlier.
Germany ranks 28th out of 31 European countries in post-pandemic aviation recovery, with seat capacity at 87 percent of 2019 levels, compared with a European average of 104 percent.
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Al Arabiya
2 hours ago
- Al Arabiya
Trump threatens ‘severe consequences' if Putin blocks Ukraine peace
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French President Emmanuel Macron said Trump agreed that Ukraine must be involved in any discussions about ceding land while Zelenskyy said Trump had supported the idea of security guarantees in a post-war settlement. 'President Trump was very clear that the United States wanted to achieve a ceasefire at this meeting in Alaska,' Macron said. 'The second point on which things were very clear, as expressed by President Trump, is that territories belonging to Ukraine cannot be negotiated and will only be negotiated by the Ukrainian president.' German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who hosted the virtual meeting, said the principle that borders could not be changed by force must continue to apply. 'If there is no movement on the Russian side in Alaska, then the United States and we Europeans should ... increase the pressure,' he said. 'President Trump knows this position, he shares it very extensively and therefore I can say: We have had a really exceptionally constructive and good conversation with each other.' Trump and Putin are due to discuss how to end the three-and-a-half-year-old conflict, the biggest in Europe since World War Two. Trump has previously said both sides will have to swap land to end fighting that has cost tens of thousands of lives and displaced millions. Russia makes sharp advance into Ukraine On a day of intense diplomacy, Zelenskyy flew into Berlin for virtual meetings with European leaders and then with Trump. He and the Europeans worry that a land swap could leave Russia with almost a fifth of Ukraine, rewarding it for almost 11 years of efforts to seize Ukrainian land, the last three in all-out war, and embolden Putin to expand further west in the future. Russian forces have made a sharp thrust into eastern Ukraine in recent days in what may be an attempt to increase the pressure on Kyiv to give up land. 'I told the US president and all our European colleagues that Putin is bluffing (about his stated wish to end the war),' Zelenskyy said. 'He is trying to apply pressure before the meeting in Alaska along all parts of the Ukrainian front. Russia is trying to show that it can occupy all of Ukraine ...' A source familiar with the matter said the call with Trump discussed possible cities that could host a three-way meeting, depending on the outcome of the talks in Alaska. Wary of angering Trump, European leaders have repeatedly said they welcome his efforts, while stressing that there should be no deal about Ukraine without Ukraine's participation. Trump's agreement last week to the summit was an abrupt shift after weeks of voicing frustration with Putin for resisting the US peace initiative. Trump said his envoy had made 'great progress' at talks in Moscow. A Gallup poll released last week found that 69 percent of Ukrainians favor a negotiated end to the war as soon as possible. But polls also indicate Ukrainians do not want peace at any cost if that means crushing concessions. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Alexei Fadeev earlier said Moscow's stance had not changed since last year. As conditions for a ceasefire and the start of talks, the Kremlin leader had demanded that Ukraine withdraw its forces from four regions that Russia has claimed as its own but does not fully control, and formally renounce its plans to join NATO. Kyiv swiftly rejected the conditions as tantamount to surrender.
Al Arabiya
2 hours ago
- Al Arabiya
‘Coalition of Willing' leaders set out stance on Ukraine ceasefire pathway
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Asharq Al-Awsat
4 hours ago
- Asharq Al-Awsat
German Chancellor Says European Leaders and Zelenskyy Had ‘Constructive' Meeting with Trump
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The stakes for Europe Trump has said he wants to see whether Putin is serious about ending the war, now in its fourth year, describing Friday's summit as "a feel-out meeting' where he can assess the Russian leader's intentions. Yet Trump has disappointed allies in Europe by saying Ukraine will have to give up some Russian-held territory. He has also said Russia must accept land swaps, although it was unclear what Putin might be expected to surrender. European allies have pushed for Ukraine's involvement in any peace talks, fearful that discussions that exclude Kyiv could otherwise favor Moscow. Trump on Monday ducked repeated chances to say that he would push for Zelenskyy to take part in his discussions with Putin, and was dismissive of Zelenskyy and his need to be part of an effort to seek peace. Trump said that following Friday's summit, a meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian leaders could be arranged, or that it could also be a meeting with 'Putin and Zelenskyy and me.' The Europeans and Ukraine are wary that Putin, who has waged the biggest land war in Europe since 1945 and used Russia's energy might to try to intimidate the European Union, might secure favorable concessions and set the outlines of a peace deal without them. The overarching fear of many European countries is that Putin will set his sights on one of them next if he wins in Ukraine. Land concessions a non-starter for Kyiv Zelenskyy said Tuesday that Putin wants Ukraine to withdraw from the remaining 30% of the Donetsk region that it still controls as part of a ceasefire deal, a proposal the leader categorically rejected. Zelenskyy reiterated that Ukraine would not give up any territory it controls, saying that would be unconstitutional and would serve only as a springboard for a future Russian invasion. He said diplomatic discussions led by the US focusing on ending the war have not addressed key Ukrainian demands, including security guarantees to prevent future Russian aggression and including Europe in negotiations. Three weeks after Trump returned to office, his administration took the leverage of Ukraine's NATO membership off the table — something that Putin has demanded — and signaled that the EU and Ukraine must handle security in Europe now while America focuses its attention elsewhere. Senior EU officials believe that Trump may be satisfied with simply securing a ceasefire in Ukraine, and is probably more interested in broader US geostrategic interests and great power politics, aiming to ramp up business with Russia and rehabilitate Putin. Russian advances in Donbas Russian forces on the ground in Ukraine have been closing in on a key territorial grab around the city of Pokrovsk, in the eastern Donbas region comprises Ukraine's eastern industrial heartland that Putin has long coveted. Military analysts using open-source information to monitor the battles have said Ukraine's ability to fend off those advances could be critical: Losing Pokrovsk would hand Russia an important victory ahead of the summit and could complicate Ukrainian supply lines to the Donetsk region, where the Kremlin has focused the bulk of military efforts. Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces struck an oil pumping station in Russia's Bryansk region overnight on Wednesday, according to a statement from Ukraine's General Staff. Ukrainian drones struck the Unecha station which supplies the Russian army, the statement said, adding that damage and a large fire was reported in the area around the pumping station. Unecha transports oil to two pipelines with an annual capacity to pump 60 million tons. The operation was carried out by units of the Unmanned Systems Forces of Ukraine's army and the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Defense Ministry, the statement said.
