The touchdown point for aircraft landing in Frankfurt airport is just four kilometers from Raunheim. The airport handles around 500,000 take-offs and landings a year, a number expected to rise to 700,000 by 2020. Raunheim is the city most affected by aircraft noise from the airport.

When planes fly in and out of the airport at night, "it gets pretty wild," said Raunheim city mayor Thomas Jühe, who also heads the local activist group against aircraft noise. When the winds blow from the east, up to 700 airplanes over a period of 24 hours fly over the town at just 300 meters.

"Every single airplane passing over is so loud that you can't hear yourself speak," Jühe said, adding that hardly anyone ever gets a good night's rest when the planes are routed over the city. "It's nearly 80 decibels loud."

Germany's largest air traffic hub

Not surprisingly, the residents of Raunheim are ecstatic about a night-flight ban. The number of them opposed to the noise has grown steadily over the years.

The Frankfurt airport, however, is of huge economic importance to the Rhine-Main region. The airport is Germany's largest air traffic hub and among the largest in Europe. In 2010, it handled 2.3 million tons of cargo. Around 71,000 people are employed in about 500 companies and organizations there.

About 1,000 people will lose their jobs as a result of the night-flight ban in Frankfurt, according to Klaus-Heiner Röhl from the Cologne Institute for Economic Research. But if the cargo airplanes are rerouted to the Cologne/Bonn or Leipzig/Halle airports, then new jobs would be created there, he said.

A night-flight ban for all German airports, however, could be a more serious challenge to the country's economy. Companies would face significant costs if forced to ship cargo at night from airports outside the country. "This could lead to a global decoupling and a loss for Germany as an export-driven economy," Röhl said.

Germany's leading air cargo carrier, Lufthansa Cargo, has already felt the impact of the night-flight ban that was unexpectedly imposed in October 2011. The company estimates a loss of about 20 million euros last year and as high as 40 million this year due to the ban, which runs from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m.

Health issues

Shortly after the night-flight ban was agreed, Lufthansa Cargo radically changed its logistic processes. Two of its 69 night flights per week were cancelled. Eleven of them were temporarily routed to the Cologne/Bonn airport. And the remaining flights were rescheduled to arrive during the day. The company says rerouting flights to the Leipzig/Halle airport or the Hahn airport in Hunsrück is not an option.

The economic aspects of the night-flight ban are one matter, health issues are another. The German Federal Environment Agency said a general ban is necessary. It claims that the health risk of aircraft noise is underestimated. It can cause cardiovascular problems and sleep disorders, according to Uwe Brendle from the agency. "Costs are associated with higher patient numbers and even premature death," he said.

The EU Commission estimates the costs of aircraft noise in member states at about 40 billion a year. "We have calculated an additional 400 million in costs for treating people with cardiovascular problems in the Frankfurt area," Brendle said.

Author: Monika Lohmüller / jrb
Editor: Kristin Zeier