Frankfurt’s western runway opened in 1984 after years of protest, some of it violent. When the airport planned its next runway, the state government of Hesse took a different route. In 1998, at its suggestion, a mediation group was formed with environmental groups and the towns under the flight path, to discuss the expansion with an open outcome. In January 2000, the group supported a new landing runway, on one main condition: ein striktes Nachtflugverbot zwischen 23:00 und 5:00 Uhr, a strict ban on night flights between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. The airport accepted the ban when it applied for the runway. The state’s approval of 2007 still allowed seventeen night flights. In October 2011, days before the new runway opened, the state’s highest administrative court imposed the night ban.