Ryanair will expand its presence at Germany’s regional airports, implementing two new aircraft, as part of a $200 million investment.
The new aircraft will be deployed to Baden-Baden and the Lower Rhine region of the country during the summer period of 2025. Ryanair is set to offer over 800,000 additional seats and 14 new routes from five of Germany's regional airports.
These airports include Lübeck, Münster, Baden-Baden, Bremen and Niederrhein.
Despite this increase in capacity, Ryanair has confirmed that investments into regional activity in Germany will “not compensate” for the loss of more than 1.8 million seats in major cities such as Berlin, Hamburg, Dresden, Leipzig and Dortmund.
In October Ryanair announced that it would cease all operations at Dortmund, Dresden and Leipzig, while reducing the number of flights operated out of Hamburg by 60%.
The airline has cited rising airport fees, air traffic control charges and air traffic and security charges as a reason for withdrawing operations from these airports.
Eddie Wilson, Ryanair CEO, noted that regional airports such as Baden-Baden, Bremen, Lübeck, Münster and Lower Rhine have acted with “foresight” and compensated for “high security and air transport costs” by providing lower airport charges.
“Ryanair reiterates its call on Transport Minister Dr Volker Wissing to take urgent action to repair Germany's broken air transport system by reducing the high cost of access and airport charges that have led German consumers to pay the highest airfares in Europe,” Wilson added.
The Dublin-based carrier has called the abolition of the country’s aviation tax, reduction of air traffic control charges and the postponement of a 50% increase in the cap on security charges.