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CLIMATE CRISIS

Private jets protest disrupts flights at Geneva Airport

Climate activists demonstrating against Europe's biggest private jets sales fair disrupted flights at Geneva Airport after chaining themselves to the planes on display.

Published: 24 May 2023 09:36 CEST
Commercial planes of Swiss air lines, Lufthansa and Spanish low-cost airline Vueling parked on the tarmac of Geneva Airport on May 4th, 2023. (
Commercial planes of Swiss air lines, Lufthansa and Spanish low-cost airline Vueling parked on the tarmac of Geneva Airport on May 4th, 2023. (Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)

Environmentalist groups said around 100 demonstrators from 17 countries were involved in the protest on Tuesday at the three-day European Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition (EBACE) being staged at a conference hall adjoining Switzerland’s second-biggest airport.

Geneva police spokeswoman Tiffany Cudre-Mauroux told AFP that around 80 people had been detained.

Images published on Twitter showed the activists camped out around the gleaming planes on show on the apron, brandishing colourful banners with the words “ban private jets” and “private jets burn our future”.

They also held up messages resembling warning labels on cigarette packages, saying “private jets drown our hope”.

In a statement, Geneva Airport said several dozen activists “broke and entered three different locations on the tarmac at 11:35 am”.

They managed to infiltrate the EBACE exhibition space “and handcuff or chain themselves to the aircraft on display”.

During the evacuation operation, air traffic was completely suspended from 11:40 am to 12:40 pm and seven inbound flights were diverted to Zurich and Lyon.

Firefighters treated four people, including activists and security staff, who were injured or unwell.

“Significant delays” are expected throughout the rest of the day, the airport said. The airport intends to file a legal complaint.

Departures to Rome, Amsterdam, Porto, Madrid, New York, Lisbon, Paris, Munich and Frankfurt were among those delayed, with some held up for more than two hours.

But there were no signs of panic amid the queuers inside the departures hall.

‘Symbol of climate inequality’

Multiple climate activist groups were involved in the joint protest. Speaking outside the airport perimeter, they insisted the intention had been to disrupt the sales fair and not regular commercial flights.

Joel Perret of Extinction Rebellion Geneva told AFP: “The goal was really to target private jets, which are the most polluting mode of transport there is — and are only accessible to an extreme minority of people, who will spend the carbon budget of all the other people who never fly.”

“Private aviation has become the symbol of climate inequality,” said Klara Maria Schenk of Greenpeace.

EBACE “has happened for more than 20 years, mostly behind closed doors, with very little attention from the public”, she said.

Mira Kapfinger of the Stay Grounded network added: “The world is now looking at this event and aware of this hypocrisy of promoting private jet sales… in a time of climate emergency, a cost of living crisis and an energy crisis.”

Cordula Markert, spokeswoman for Scientist Rebellion Germany told AFP: “I cannot believe that people with so much power and money are not using it for good.”

“They must know, especially in aviation, there is no green way of having private jets. Deep down, all of them know it.”

Sector ‘focused on net-zero’

EBACE is hosted by the European Business Aviation Association and the US-based National Business Aviation Association.

“This is a completely unacceptable form of protest. We condemn the action,” EBAA chairman Juergen Wiese and NBAA president and chief executive Ed Bolen said in a joint statement.

“Business aviation is deeply committed to climate action. This is an industry that has cut its carbon emissions by 40 percent over the past 40 years, is continually reducing emissions today, and is collectively focused on achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.”

Geneva Airport chief operating officer Giovanni Russo told the event that sustainability was “not just our licence to grow” as an air hub, “but our
licence to survive”.

In 2022, more than 14 million passengers travelled through the airport, according to official figures.

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TRAVEL NEWS

What will Europe’s EES passport checks mean for dual nationals?

The EU's Entry & Exit System (EES) of enhanced passport checks will usher in big changes for travellers - here we answer readers' questions on the position for dual nationals.

Published: 22 April 2024 17:10 CEST
What will Europe's EES passport checks mean for dual nationals?

The EU is preparing, after many delays, to introduce the EES system for travel in and out of Europe.

You can find a full explanation of how it works HERE, but in essence it is an enhanced passport check – registering biometric details such as fingerprints and facial scans and introducing an automatic calculation of how long you have stayed within the EU/Schengen zone in order to detect ‘over-stayers’.

And it’s already causing stress for travellers. We asked readers of The Local to share their questions here – and one of the biggest worries was how the system will work for dual nationals ie people who have a passport for both an EU country and a non-EU country.

EES: Your questions answered

EU passports 

One of the main purposes of EES is to detect ‘over-stayers’ – people who have either stayed in the EU longer than their visa allows or non-EU nationals who have over-stayed their allowance of 90 days in every 180.

As this does not apply to EU nationals, people travelling on an EU passport are not required to do EES pre-registration and will continue to travel in the same way once EES is introduced – going to the ‘EU passports queue’ at airports, ports and stations and having their passports scanned as normal.

Non-EU 

Non-EU travellers will, once EES is up and running, be required to complete EES pre-registration.

This means that the first time they cross an EU/Schengen zone external border they will have to go to a special zone of the airport/port/terminal and supply extra passport information including fingerprints and a facial scan.

This only needs to be done once and then lasts for three years.

Non-EU residents of the EU/Schengen zone

This does not apply to non-EU citizens who are permanent residents of an EU country or who have a long-stay visa for an EU/Schengen zone country – click HERE for full details.

Schengen zone passports/Irish passports 

EES applies within the Schengen zone, so people with Swiss, Norwegian and Icelandic passports are treated in the same way as citizens of EU countries.

Ireland and Cyprus are in the EU but not the Schengen zone – these countries will not be using the EES system at their borders, but their citizens are still EU citizens so can continue to use EU passport gates at airports and will be treated the same as all other EU citizens (ie they don’t have to do EES pre-registration).

OK, so what if you have both an EU and a non-EU passport?

They key thing to remember about EES is that it doesn’t actually change any of the rules on immigration – it’s just a way of better enforcing the rules that are already in place. 

Therefore the rules for dual nationals remain as they are – for most people which passport to travel on is a matter of personal choice, although Americans should be aware that if you have a US passport and you are entering the USA, you must use your American passport. 

But it’s also important to remember that the passports of dual nationals are not ‘linked’ – therefore if you present an American passport at the Italian border, you will be treated exactly the same as every other American, there is no way for the border guard to know that you are also Italian.

Likewise if you are a UK-Germany dual national and you travel back to the UK on your German passport, you can expect to be treated the same as every other German at the border, and might be asked for proof of where you are staying in UK, how long you intend to stay etc – the system has no way of knowing that you are also British. 

Therefore whether you have to complete EES pre-registration or not is entirely a matter of which passport you are travelling on – if you use your EU passport you won’t have to do it, if you use your non-EU passport you will.

It’s also possible to use two passports for the same trip – so let’s say you’re travelling from Spain to Canada – you enter Canada on your Canadian passport, and show your Canadian passport again when you leave. However, once you re-enter Spain you show your Spanish passport in order to benefit from the unlimited length of stay.

If you’re travelling between France and the UK via the Eurostar, Channel Tunnel or cross-Channel ferry, you need to remember that the Le Touquet agreement means that French passport checks take place in the UK and vice versa. You can still use both passports, but you just need to keep your wits about you and remember to hand the French one to the French border guards and the British one to British guards.

In terms of avoiding immigration formalities using two passports is the most efficient way for dual nationals to travel, but some people prefer to stick to one passport for simplicity, or don’t want to keep both passports together in case of theft.

Basically it’s a personal choice, but you just need to remember that you will be treated according to the passport that you show – which includes completing EES pre-registration if you’re showing a non-EU passport.

It’s also worth remembering that if the changes do cause border delays (and there are fears that they might especially at the UK-France border), then these will affect all travellers – regardless of their passport. 

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