Air travel disrupted in Europe as Oil Kills campaigners block runways

Activists breach airports in co-ordinated protests in several countries including UK and Germany

A departures board showing cancelled flights at Cologne Bonn Airport. Reuters

Oil Kills activists protest at Vienna International Airport. Air travel in Europe was disrupted on Wednesday, July 24 by climate activists who blocked runways and departure gates in a co-ordinated stunt. Photo: Oil Kills

Police officers stand next to a hole in the fence at Cologne/Bonn Airport, Germany, Wednesday July 24, 2024. Climate activists have caused an interruption to air traffic at Cologne/Bonn Airport. (dpa via AP)

A display at Cologne Bonn Airport shows delays and flight cancellations, after climate activists caused an interruption to air traffic during a protest at Cologne/Bonn Airport, Germany, Wednesday July 24, 2024. (Thomas Banneyer / dpa via AP)

Oil Kills activists protest at Oslo Airport in Norway. Photo: Oil Kills

The Oil Kills protest also reached Geneva Airport in Switzerland. Photo: Oil Kills

Zurich Airport, where flights were disrupted. Photo: Oil Kills

A protest banner is unfurled at Helsinki's airport in Finland. Photo: Oil Kills

Air travel in Europe was disrupted on Wednesday by climate activists who blocked runways and departure gates in a co-ordinated stunt.

Flights resumed after long delays and cancellations that began when campaigners cut through a fence at Germany's Cologne-Bonn Airport at 5am and glued themselves to the runway.

A runway was breached in Norway and security gates were blocked in Finland as the campaigners declared an 'international uprising' to end the use of fossil fuels.

Activists at London Heathrow and Barcelona's El Prat Airport were intercepted by police before they could disrupt air traffic.

The protests took place under the slogan Oil Kills, in a rebranded alliance between groups such as Extinction Rebellion, Britain's Just Stop Oil and Germany's Last Generation.

Organisers warned Wednesday's action was "just the start" as they seek an end to coal, oil and gas extraction by 2030 under a legally binding climate change treaty.

They said campaigners had received “training in non-violence” and would take “all possible steps” not to threaten airport safety.

The protest began at 5am when intruders with bicycles and skateboards cut through chain-link fence at Cologne-Bonn and stuck themselves to a runway.

“Airports such as this are a place of injustice. We are here demanding that governments sign a fossil fuel treaty,” said Malte Nierobisch, 21, one of five protesters at Cologne-Bonn Airport in Germany.

The German airport said flights had resumed but disruptions and cancellations “are to be expected during the course of the day” after a hole was cut in a perimeter fence.

Three people breached another fence in Oslo shortly before 6am and sat down next to the runway. Nine people blocked the security area at Helsinki, holding up a banner reading “fossil fuels are killing us”.

Roads were blocked on the way to Zurich and Geneva's airports in Switzerland, disrupting passengers as they entered the departures and arrivals terminals. Five people were arrested.

Rita Straub, a 74-year-old activist in Switzerland, said she was "ashamed of the state of the world I am leaving to my great nieces and nephews".

In Barcelona, five people were intercepted by police while taking action at El Prat Airport, with fines handed out on the spot, campaigners said.

London's Metropolitan Police said Heathrow's operations were running as normal after nine people were arrested. "These arrests have prevented significant disruption to the airport and the travelling public," it said.

More airport protests are expected this weekend, Dutch activists said. Oil Kills campaigners said airports were targeted as a “key pillar of the global fossil fuel economy”.

“By taking non-violent direct action at airports, we are disrupting business as usual on an international scale that can’t be ignored,” said the group, which calls itself an “international uprising to end oil by 2030".

The protests come days after Germany's government proposed two-year prison sentences for people convicted of disrupting air traffic.

A sentence of up to five years would be possible in cases where intruders force their way into an airport with banned objects such as a knife or toxic substance.

Activists have previously shut down Berlin's main airport, and the Last Generation is planning a new “wave of protests” this autumn.

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser had accused people gluing themselves to runways of putting others at risk and causing delays to tens of thousands of travellers.

In Britain, a group of Just Stop Oil protesters were sentenced to four to five years in prison last week after conspiring to block traffic on London's ring road motorway.

A judge said the “exemplary sentences” were a necessary deterrent because activists appeared to believe that the criminal law “really doesn't matter”.

“The plain fact is that each of you has some time ago crossed the line from concerned campaigner to fanatic,” the judge said.