The first applause of the day is not given to Eintracht captain Kevin Trapp, but to Condor captain Benjamin Starke.

He steps out of his cockpit shortly before eight o'clock on Wednesday morning with a Eintracht scarf and cap, takes the on-board microphone and says: "Dear Eintracht fans, it's nice that everyone is wearing the same uniform today." What he means are the colors , which everyone wears on their body for this trip: black, white and red on the scarf, jersey, hoodie.

Applause for the Condor captain breaks out in the rows of seats of the fan plane, which is about to take off with 279 passengers on board towards Seville for the first leg in the Europa League round of 16 with the Spanish first division representative Betis - with plenty of dreams, expectations and longings in the luggage.

Daniel Schleidt

Coordinator of the economics department in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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The day for the passengers of the fan plane starts early and ends early.

Travelers put up with more than 24 hours without a bed and hardly any sleep to see Eintracht play in Seville.

For almost every away game in the Europa League, the club's fan and promotion department charters entire planes to bring their own supporters to the venue.

The demand for the tickets usually exceeds the supply many times over, for the two day flights without an overnight stay around 5000 applications are said to have been received for a good 500 seats.

For Marc and René, all this is almost routine.

The alarm clock rang for them in Oberursel at 5 a.m., but the two Frankfurt fans were already awake by then, full of anticipation for a very special trip with their heart club to the capital of the southern Spanish province of Andalusia.

Two hours later they are standing at counter 736 at Frankfurt Airport with a cold drink and talking about their Eintracht history.

Marc and René drive a lot and are almost always there when their team plays away from home, anyway.

Her distinguishing feature is a hat without a peak, on which the name of her Ebbelwei pub "Zum Rühl" is embroidered, where her fan club was founded ten years ago.

Since then they have traveled half of Europe with Eintracht, the stickers on their caps bear witness to this.

René bends down and points to a pin stuck in the hat.

"He's from the game in Piraeus," he says. Back in November, Frankfurt defeated Olympiakos there in the group stage 2-1.

Whether Rome, Milan or London: "The Hats", as the 20-man squad call themselves, have always been there when Eintracht has played internationally in recent years.

Same today.

Arriving on the plane, Marc and René see Captain Starke talk about his privilege of being able to regularly head for attractive travel destinations.

"But what I wouldn't give this time to sit with you and not in the front of the cockpit." Flight attendant Christian Haertel, wearing a Eintracht scarf over his smart uniform, asks the first 25 rows to shout "Eintracht", the back ones alternately "Frankfurt".

It's the first battle cry of the day.

To the delight of the supporters, Eintracht's beer sponsor has apparently stocked the Airbus well, "Great, free beer on the fan plane," shouts one.