Ryanair is to reduce its operations from German airports during the summer period of 2025.
The low-cost carrier is to cut 1.8 million seats from its schedule along with 22 routes. This is due to a dispute between the airline and the German government over aviation tax and air traffic control fees, which the airline has said is "hampering recovery and growth."
"Germany has only recovered 82% of its pre-Covid traffic volume, making it by far the worst-performing aviation market in Europe. Due to these high government taxes and fees (the highest in Europe), as well as Lufthansa's high-price monopoly, German citizens and visitors now pay the highest airfares in Europe," said Eddie Wilson, CEO of Ryanair DAC.
As a part of the planned cuts, Ryanair will cease all operations at Dortmund (DTM), Dresden (DRS) and Leipzig (LEJ), while reducing the number of flights operated out of Hamburg (HAM) by 60%.
Wilson continued: "Ryanair presented a 7-year growth plan for Germany to double traffic from 16 million to 34 million, but there was no feedback from the federal or state governments. The refusal to encourage growth at German airports is short-sighted, as Ryanair is poised to grow significantly in Germany, but rising air traffic tax, security and air traffic control fees are causing these capacities to move to other EU countries."
This latest reduction in operations follows action back in August - in which the airline suspended 20% of its air traffic at Berlin’s Brandenburg airport.- with the low-cost carrier blaming access costs as the reason for the reduction in operations at the German capital’s airport.