Greens: Better monitoring of empty flights at Leipzig/Halle Airport

The Greens are calling on the Free State of Bavaria to better monitor empty flights at Leipzig/Halle Airport at night. This should help to better protect local residents from night-time flight noise, said Franziska Schubert, head of the Green parliamentary group.

On empty flights, planes take off or land at the airport without cargo on board. These so-called positioning flights ensure that aircraft are in the right place at the right time to handle the cargo business.

Schubert asked the state government that there were 1,354 of these empty flights at Leipzig/Halle in 2025. The Green politician calls the fact that 352 of these took place at night "alarming" in terms of noise protection. Saxony's state government must systematically record empty flights and their necessity, demanded Schubert.

Government has no concrete reasons for the flights

Infrastructure Minister Regina Kraushaar (CDU) informed the Green politician that the government had no knowledge of the operational reasons for the empty flights at Leipzig/Halle Airport. This is a matter for the airlines.

Leipzig/Halle Airport is one of the few airports in Germany with a night flight permit. It applies to so-called express freight. The logistics group DHL operates a large hub here.

Last year, there were 49,634 cargo flights at Leipzig/Halle, according to the state government's response to Schubert's question. Of these, 73 percent (36,289) were handled at night.