Who is late pays. This is the mantra that the managers of Geneva international airport repeat to themselves. After testing the initiative in 2023, the measure has now entered into force permanently: air carriers that exceed the arrival or departure time, causing noise pollution in homes located near the airport grounds (approximately 30,000 inhabitants), are forced to pay very high fines.

"From the official launch in 2025 there will be virtually no taxes to pay. Airlines have adapted their flight times as a result of which noise has decreased. Sometimes the threat of a stick is needed instead of a carrot", explains the director of the airport, André Schneider, interviewed by the newspaper "Aargauer Zeitung".

The tariff for delays is as follows: a company operating a delayed flight will be forced to pay an amount between 5180 and 20,715 Euros for a connection to a European destination, but it can go up from 10,360 to 41,430 for intercontinental flights. It is no coincidence, they observe from the Canton of Geneva, that already during the tests "a notable decrease in delayed take-offs" was recorded. An appeal to the federal administrative court weighs on the issue.