Federal Environment Minister Svenja Schulze (SPD) and CSU leader Markus Söder have ruled out a ban on short-haul flights in Germany for reasons of climate protection.
"The ban on short-haul flights would be nonsense and also an economic problem for our country," said Söder of the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper.
Such flights have already become more expensive anyway - and that is also a real climatological signal.
However, it is also about the social component: "We must not ignore the fact that the general population must also be able to afford a flight to Mallorca," emphasized the CSU boss.
He called for rail traffic to be made more attractive instead of bans on air traffic.
Environment Minister Schulze also does not consider a ban on short-haul flights to be necessary: "Extreme short-haul flights as in other countries hardly exist in Germany anyway," the SPD politician told the newspaper.
“There are feeder flights, and some of them will still be necessary.” The SPD wanted to set a reasonable minimum price for flights: “We don't want to forbid people to go on vacation, but flying has to get a real price”.
The Green Chancellor candidate Annalena Baerbock had announced that in the event of a takeover of government she would work towards the complete abolition of short-haul flights. She thinks it is "not fair that all of our tax money subsidizes kerosene, while long-distance train journeys are expensive, especially at peak times," Baerbock told Bild am Sonntag. On Monday, Baerbock made it clear that she was not referring to a general ban.