The cities and municipalities organized in the "Zukunft Rhein-Main" initiative are launching a poster campaign to demand that the state government enforce the night flight ban it promised for Frankfurt Airport. The campaign is intended to remind the Hessian state government of its promise not to allow any scheduled flights between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. "The utmost vigilance" is required, emphasize the spokespeople for the initiative, District Administrator Enno Siehr (Groß-Gerau district), Mayor Jens Beutel (city of Mainz), and Mayor Angelika Munck (city of Hochheim am Main): "We will not let up and will continue to remind them of this firm commitment!" With the average of 17 night flights permitted in the planning approval decision, the cabinet has already broken its word once. Now, even the Hessian Administrative Court – which, incidentally, waved through the expansion plans almost without review – has demanded compliance with nighttime quiet hours and rejected the relevant passages of the planning approval decision. Nevertheless, the state government is apparently seriously considering appealing the decision: "So they want to have their own promises declared invalid by a court ruling – who can understand that?"

In this case, according to Beutel, Munck, and Siehr, the term "broken promise" would take on a whole new dimension: "It's grotesque: a lawsuit by the state government against the night flight ban it has been promoting for many years would be a worst-case scenario in terms of the trustworthiness of politicians' promises!" Minister President Koch never tired of promising the people living in the vicinity of the airport at least six hours of quiet at night. He justified his change of heart just under two years ago solely on the grounds that a night flight ban could not be enforced legally: "But this is exactly what has now happened, and so he and his cabinet colleagues are bound by this promise without any ifs or buts!"

The motif of the poster campaign, a toddler sleeping with earplugs and the slogan "Frankfurt Airport wishes you good night!", may seem familiar to many. In fact, it is a new edition of a protest medium already used by ZRM eight years ago: "Unfortunately, today as then, there are serious doubts as to whether the state government is really serious about noise protection," lament Angelika Munck, Enno Siehr, and Jens Beutel: "This makes it all the more important to remind them again and again that they must keep their word!"

Press release from the district of Groß-Gerau, the city of Mainz, and the city of Hochheim dated September 25, 2009