Air traffic – Frankfurt am Main – Pilots: Good level of security at German airports – Economy
Frankfurt/Main (dpa) – Even during the Corona crisis, individual airports in Germany worked hard on their security equipment. In their annual “airport check” on Thursday, the pilots’ union “Vereinigung Cockpit” praised the “still very good” level of safety, but still sees room for improvement.
In the eyes of the pilots, the safest airport in Germany is once again Munich, with its public instrument landing systems on all runways. Leipzig-Halle follows in second place with the new northern runway and the “uniquely good lighting in Germany” of the taxiways. The largest German airport in Frankfurt landed again in the middle. As with selected checks of this type, Mannheim Airport, which according to VC is unfavorably located for the approach, received the lowest rating.
Heringsdorf Airport on Usedom received special praise for renewing the approach lights and installing so-called stop bars at the approaches to the runway, which have not been common in Germany to date. Red lights act as a last line of arrest to prevent pilots from taxiing onto a runway where another aircraft is taking off or landing.
“In terms of their equipment, the airports are well prepared for the increasing traffic movements and are also investing in new equipment or optimized processes through systematic improvements,” explained VC spokesman Mattias Baier. It is hoped that the upswing will be used in the coming years to install even more far-reaching improvements in order to remain state-of-the-art. Specifically, the VC is committed to more stop bars and a uniform system for naming the taxiways.
A working group from the Cockpit Association has been subjecting German commercial airports to an annual security check since 1978. Since 1996, regional airports have also been operated, provided there is significant scheduled traffic. A list of criteria serves as the basis for the investigation, which includes both international regulations and additional equipment that makes sense from the pilot’s point of view. The methodology has been changed for the current report.
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