BONN (dpa-AFX) - Deutsche Post will soon no longer use airplanes to deliver letters, a practice that has been questionable for decades in terms of climate protection. The decision has been made to discontinue the current overnight air transportation of letters in Germany at the end of March, the DHL Group announced on Wednesday in response to an inquiry.

Three planes are currently still in operation for Swiss Post on five working days per week, namely between Stuttgart and Berlin, Hanover and Munich and Hanover and Stuttgart - each night there and back, i.e. 30 night flights per week to collect letters.

The reason for the use of night flights to date is a government requirement that 80 percent of letters posted today must reach the recipient on the next working day. In order to comply with this regulation and to request some of the letters as quickly as possible, the Post Office has been using the aforementioned night fliers for decades. However, federal politicians are currently working on an amendment to the outdated Postal Act, which should be completed by the end of spring.

The reform is intended to significantly reduce the time pressure on the postal service when transporting letters. In turn, Swiss Post is taking this as an opportunity to cancel the aforementioned night flights and instead rely entirely on trucks and freight trains for long-distance deliveries.

According to a spokesperson for Swiss Post, one of the reasons why the Bonn-based logistics company has decided to discontinue night flights before the reform is completed is that the contracts with the airlines Eurowings and Tui fly would otherwise have been extended for a certain period of time. There is now a broad consensus among politicians to soften the legal time pressure that Swiss Post is under when requesting letters in view of the changing demand in the digital age./wdw/DP/stk