Climate activists glue themselves to the runway of the German airport

German activists glued themselves to a runway at Munich airport on Saturday and caused dozens of flights to be canceled in their latest move aimed at pushing authorities to tackle climate change.

Activists from environmental protest group Last Generation entered Germany’s second-busiest airport in the early hours by cutting through a fence, an airport spokesman said.

Flights were suspended, leading to the cancellation of 61 takeoffs and landings, he said.

The action ended with the arrest of eight climate activists, police told the local public broadcaster.

Both the airport’s runways have reopened since 7:20 am (0520 GMT), but disruptions are expected to continue throughout the day. It came at the beginning of a long weekend in Germany, a busy travel day.

The Last Generation is known for staging high-profile protests – from gluing themselves to busy roads to throwing mashed potatoes at a Claude Monet painting – that have sharply divided public opinion and drawn increasingly harsh responses from authorities.

Transport Minister Volker Wissing condemned the action, saying it was “not a legitimate protest, but a targeted intervention in air traffic”.

“If air traffic is not safe, people are at risk, there is a risk of major economic damage and thousands of travelers will be stranded.”

But in a post on X, formerly Twitter, Last Generation accused the government of not doing enough to discourage people from flying, a major source of climate-damaging emissions.

“It is absurd that people are more likely to be able to afford flights than train travel,” the group said. “The responsibility for this lies with the government: it subsidizes flights while the railways are cut to the bone.”

In December 2022, activists from the group had also glued themselves to a runway at Munich Airport, but caused only minor delays.

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