German airport curfew strikes again: flight diverted 400km away for 10-second delay

Teutonic efficiency, at least in the field of air transportation, is a myth debunked over and over again by data regarding the punctuality of German airlines and airports. However, there seems to be one aspect on which Germanic intransigence has not abdicated: that of the night curfews adopted by some of the country's major airports, such as those in Frankfurt, Munich and Berlin.

Within just ten days, the strict enforcement of these 'curfew' had disastrous consequences for the unfortunate passengers of two German-bound flights: a Ryanair Vilnius-Berlin and a Condor Palma de Mallorca-Munich.

On the evening of May 21, flight FR1571 was scheduled to connect the Lithuanian city with the German capital, but instead of taking off at 10:10 p.m. (with expected arrival at 10:50 p.m., thanks to the time difference), left at 11:50 p.m., with one hour and ten minutes to cover a distance of 510 miles.

The One Mile at a Time website reports that on January 13, that same Ryanair flight had managed to make it in one hour and eight minutes, but the May 21 'bet' fell through due to a seven-minute 'weather delay' during descent on Berlin, which has a curfew that goes off at 11:30 p.m. but with a 30-minute grace period for incoming flights.

FR1571 reportedly landed at Berlin Brandenburg at 00:07 and was 'rejected,' ending up landing in Hanover 00.26, from where the passengers were transported by bus to Berlin, arriving there in the middle of the night.

Even more rocambolic (and bordering on the absurd) is what happened last June 2 to Condor flight DE1513: Scheduled at 8:35 p.m. from Palma de Mallorca with arrival in Munich at 10:40 p.m, The German carrier's Airbus A321 has instead Left the Balearic island at 10:50 p.m., with an hour and 40 minutes to spare so as not to overrun the start time of the curfew, which in Munich goes off at midnight with a 30-minute grace period for late arriving flights.

The A321 pilots had favorable conditions and did a great job, lining up the plane heading for Munich's runway 8R when it was still a few minutes to 00:30. But, with their undercarriage already down, were turned away by the Bavarian airport control tower for what would have been a landing a few dozen seconds later than 00:30.

Condor's passengers fared even worse than Ryanair's, as they their A321 ended up in Frankfurt Hahn, nearly 400km from Munich, where they landed at 1:13 am. From there They had to make it by bus to Frankfurt., where they arrived at 4:30 a.m. At 6:50 a.m. Condor finally put them on its flight to Munich, where they finally landed at 8 a.m., which is seven and a half hours later and after a nightmarish night.

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