Test phase for environmentally friendly TEDGO procedures at Stuttgart Airport in Germany comes to an end

From 13 June 2024, DFS, the German air navigation service provider, will use the short TEDGO departure procedures at Stuttgart Airport in regular operations for landing direction east.  

In a press release dated 6 June 2024, the German Federal Supervisory Authority for Air Navigation Services (BAF) announced that these TEDGO departure procedures are valid. According to the BAF, the deliberations and votes of the Noise Abatement Commission for Stuttgart Airport on 6 May 2024 provide no basis for withdrawing the lawful procedure. The assumptions from the flight procedure planning were confirmed by the expert reports on the trial operations: The procedures objectively generate less noise and less CO2. 

In light of the previous deliberations of the Noise Abatement Commission, DFS had already made the decision before the end of the trial operations on 22 February 2024 to continue using these departure procedures subject to the same conditions as during the test operations. A maximum quota of two departures per hour was set for the test operations. 

This practice was to be maintained until a decision on the matter was made by the Higher Administrative Court (VGH) in Mannheim on 11 June 2024. Now that the plaintiff municipalities have withdrawn their action, DFS and BAF agree that there is no longer any objective reason to prevent the regular use of TEDGO procedures.  

Media contact:    
Robert Ertler   
Telephone: +49 (0)6103 / 707-4160     
E-mail: presse@dfs.de     

DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung GmbH (DFS), the German air navigation service provider, is a State-owned copany under private law with 5,700 employees as at 31 December 2023. DFS ensures the safe and punctual flow of air traffic over Germany. Around 2,200 air traffic controllers guide more than three million flights through German airspace in peak years, up to 10,000 every day. The company operates control centres in Bremen, Karlsruhe, Langen and Munich as well as control towers at the 15 designated international airports in Germany. The subsidiary, DFS Aviation Services GmbH, markets and sells products and services related to air navigation services, and provides air traffic control at nine regional airports in Germany and at Edinburgh Airport in the United Kingdom. DFS is working on the integration of drones into air traffic and has set up a joint venture, Droniq GmbH, with Deutsche Telekom. Other subsidiaries include R. Eisenschmidt GmbH, which markets publications and products for general aviation, and Kaufbeuren ATM Training GmbH (KAT), which provides training for military air traffic services personnel. The joint venture FCS Flight Calibration Services GmbH offers flight inspection services.