By the way...

Most sustainable

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his air travel. Here he is boarding the Airbus A350-900XWB "Kurt Schuhmacher" in Washington.

(Bild: EPA)

For the latest edition of his column "Oh, by the way...", "Krone" author Harald Petermichl has done some research into transport connections within Germany and to neighboring grand duchies. For the more adventurous, there is the trip with Deutsche Bahn - for German government members, the trip with the Bundeswehr air force...

If you want to travel from Frankfurt am Main to the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg on the Moselle, there are numerous options. For the intrepid and hardy, Deutsche Bahn offers various connections and, depending on whether you change trains in Mainz, Saarbrücken or Koblenz, you can complete the trip in four to five hours, provided you catch the respective connecting trains. And at 100 euros, it's quite inexpensive. The fastest option is by car, as you can cover the 238 kilometers in just under three hours and enjoy the beauty of the Simmerner Mulde along the way. But if you still haven't heard the bang, you'll pay an equally absurd 200 dumping euros for an absurd 50-minute journey in a flying box.

It is not yet clear whether Olaf Scholz also clapped his hands after landing.

(Bild: EPA)

Of course it can be more exclusive, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock seems to have thought when she remembered during the European Championship group game between Switzerland and Germany that she urgently needed to go to Luxembourg after the match. And this time she was able to rely on the Bundeswehr's air force, which had taken her from Abu Dhabi to Abu Dhabi instead of Australia a good year ago due to a technical problem and after dumping 80 tons of kerosene over the Persian Gulf. FRA - LUX was no problem and considering the fact that the trip took place at a time when night flights were banned, you really can't complain about the fare of 47,039.98 euros.

The delicate plant of "sustainability"
Chancellor Scholz has apparently also taken UEFA's intention to "reduce the CO2 footprint of the tournament by means of an adapted match schedule, intelligent mobility solutions (including incentives for rail travel) and measuring the CO2 footprint" to heart and therefore always had one or other cabinet member in his hand luggage on his four European Championship flights in order to spread the costs. Of course, this puts the price of 114,487.41 euros for a flight from Berlin to Stuttgart and back to attend the Germany vs. Hungary match in a completely different light, and a good 500,000 euros for six government flights during the European Championships is downright peanuts when you consider that billionaire Jared Isaacman paid around 200 million for a three-day trip into space in 2021, together with "a doctor's assistant, an artist and a father of two". It's good to see that the delicate plant of sustainability is gradually beginning to bear fruit.