Feb. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Europe's No. 2 airline, may seek redress for cancellations and delays from German authorities who temporarily brought the Frankfurt area to a standstill yesterday for a visit by U.S. President George W. Bush, damaging business for local companies.
Lufthansa had to cancel 92 flights, affecting 5,730 passengers, as a consequence of air traffic restrictions, said spokesman Thomas Jachnow in a telephone interview. Delays to another 330 flights totaled around 300 hours. Jachnow said losses went ``well into the millions,'' though he declined to elaborate.
Bush's eight-hour trip to Mainz, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of Frankfurt, for talks with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, led the authorities to halt river traffic on the Rhine, Europe's busiest waterway, suspend takeoffs and landings at Frankfurt airport, Europe's second biggest, and close four motorways for periods of up to four hours. Much of Mainz city center was cordoned off, damaging business in local stores.
``Sales were awful,'' said Hans Keller, owner of a pharmacy about 100 yards away from the restricted area. ``Bush's visit has caused economic damage to all businesses here in Mainz and nobody is going to compensate us.''
Axel Raabe, a spokesman for DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung GmbH, which operates Germany's air traffic control system, said each minute of delay to a flight increases costs by around 50 euros ($66).
Secret Service
DFS said in an e-mailed statement that the U.S. Secret Service had ordered the complete closure of the airport during Bush's arrival and departure two days before the visit, after previously saying it would not be necessary. The closure was needed to allow the presidential convoy to cross the airport runways and take the shortest route.
``Massive reference to the serious consequences this plan would have on flight operations failed to change their position,'' DFS said.
About 14,000 police officers helped to protect Bush, said Ernst Scharbach, spokesman for the Rhineland-Palatinate police's labor union. Police were brought in from as far away as Schleswig- Holstein, Germany's northernmost state, and Brandenburg, the state encircling the capital Berlin.
``I have never experienced such security,'' Wolfgang Herber, a police officer on duty in Mainz, told broadcaster ARD. Herber helped protect former U.S. President Ronald Reagan on a visit to Germany in 1985.
Reconciliation
Complaints by local residents and store-owners about the security clampdown blemished the picture of reconciliation between Schroeder and Bush, whose meeting was intended to heal the rift that resulted from German opposition to the U.S.-led war against Iraq.
Keller, who spent the night in his pharmacy, said his eight employees were forced to stay at home because they couldn't have made it to the shop. Sales dropped to a third of normal turnover, he said, adding that he kept the store open expecting old people in a neighboring nursing home to need his services.
Twenty-four kilometers of the River Rhine and 15 kilometers of its tributary, the Main, were closed for traffic yesterday. The BDB Inland Shipping Federation said in a statement on its Web site the day before the visit it estimated losses would amount to 500 million euros.
``We have a lot of understanding for the security measures necessary,'' BDB President Heinz Hoffmann said. ``But the complete closure to shipping of the very congested Main and Rhine rivers burdens the industry beyond measure and goes way too far.''
The BDB said delays would affect 100 vessels of the 170 that pass Mainz on an average day.
hate to say it but if we're going to require security conditions like that he may as well not the leave the country. fuck why not lock him in a bunker... everyone has to make a sacrifice!
for those people we call terrorists that bomb their own people with suicide bombers and car bombs. Nope, not terrorists at all.