- Ryanair withdrawing capacity from Bremen and closing Berlin base
- German security fees doubled since 2021 with airport fees also doubling
- German ATC fees increased nearly threefold since COVID
- Slovakia abolished aviation taxes and reduced ATC fees by 50pc
The A4E briefing in Brussels heard that Ryanair was withdrawing capacity from Bremen at the end of October and closing the base in Berlin.
The carrier was gradually reducing capacity at high-cost German airports where security fees doubled since 2021. Airport fees doubled despite airports being empty and declining. German air traffic control fees increased nearly threefold since COVID. O’Leary shared that Slovakia abolished aviation taxes and reduced ATC fees by 50pc while Sweden abolished aviation taxes with strong traffic growth.
Michael O’Leary shared:: we are going to withdraw capacity from Bremen at the end of October. We’re also closing the base in Berlin. It is part of a two- or three-year policy of us gradually reducing capacity at high-cost German airports where we’re paying, security fees in Germany have doubled since COVID 2021, airport fees have doubled, despite the fact that many of these airports (Berlin, Hamburg, Bremen) are empty and declining. I noted this morning that Berlin airport, where they wasted I don’t know how many billions building the new terminal in Brandenburg, had traffic of 2 million in the month of September, which was down about 2pc on the previous year, which itself was down about 20pc on the year before. The German government doesn’t get it. They have the benefit of having Carsten’s very strong hubs in Frankfurt and Munich, which continue to grow strongly and successfully, but all of the other regional airports and Berlin are dying under the failed policies of taxing airports, raising security fees.
ATC fees in Germany have gone up nearly threefold, 300pc, since COVID, and we still get a crap service from German ATC. The reason why Merz is so unpopular and this government has utterly failed is that Germany is just not competitive anymore, and certainly in aviation not competitive. For us we say: here you have an example of Slovakia which has abolished aviation taxes and reduced its ATC fees by 50pc; Sweden which has abolished aviation taxes and our traffic is growing strongly. So our policy for the moment is to take aircraft out of countries like France and Germany.
We’re not leaving them, but we will switch capacity out of those countries where there’s high taxation and high airport fees and switch them to those countries where there’s zero taxation and lower airport fees. I do believe , and I predict, that in three to four years’ time Germany will be the fastest-growing aviation market in Europe. It is a huge population; they have a high propensity to travel. But until a new government in Germany scraps these stupid taxes, lowers the ridiculous ATC fees and abolishes this mad security fee, German aviation is going to continue to struggle. Mainly because it’s being spoiled by the success of Lufthansa in Frankfurt and Munich, but everywhere else in Germany is dying.
Carsten Spohr shared: Lufthansa Group has more airplanes at our hubs outside of Germany this summer than in our two large hubs in Frankfurt and Munich. So we are becoming a more and more European airline group because of course we are suffering from the high cost in our hubs as well. Connectivity in Germany is still below pre-COVID levels – one of only a couple of countries in Europe (along with Austria and Iceland for specific reasons) that is still below. Europe overall is above pre-COVID levels.
