BREMEN (dpa-AFX) - There were more aircraft in German airspace last year than in 2022. German Air Navigation Services (DFS) monitored around 2.8 million aircraft movements, DFS told Deutsche Presse-Agentur on request. This corresponds to an increase of around 7.7 percent compared to 2022.

The last time there were more aircraft movements was in 2019, when around 3.3 million movements were monitored. The figures fell sharply with the coronavirus pandemic: around 1.5 million movements were monitored in 2020 and around 1.6 million in 2021.

DFS, headquartered in Langen near Frankfurt, is responsible for safety in German airspace. The federally owned company supervises all aircraft flying according to the so-called instrument flight rules at its control centers. According to the spokesperson, this is the case when pilots are guided solely by the instruments and not, for example, by highway intersections that they can see from above.

On Wednesday, DFS celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of the Bremen control center. Other DFS control centers in Germany are located in Langen, Karlsruhe and Munich. The Bremen branch has around 500 employees, including air traffic controllers, flight data processors and engineers. The air traffic controllers coordinate up to 1800 aircraft a day. They have to ensure that the aircraft maintain sufficient distance, as the spokesperson said./lkm/DP/zb