Ryanair scraps ANOTHER 24 routes and 800,000 seats
Budget airline Ryanair has announced it will cancel 24 routes to and from Germany, cutting a total of around 800,000 seats.
It comes amid rising tensions over what the airline described as an “exorbitant” air travel tax.
Ryanair, which describes itself as Europe’s number one airline, said that this move will affect nine German airports, including Berlin, Hamburg and Memmingen, while Dortmund, Dresden and Leipzig will remain closed.
As a result, Ryanair’s overall capacity in Germany will fall below Winter 24 levels.
The low-cost airline accuses government policies of harming the country’s competitiveness in the European market.
In a statement published yesterday, Ryanair accused the German government of making air travel increasingly unaffordable due to high aviation taxes and rising operational costs, including air traffic control, airport management and security fees.
Dara Brady, Ryanair’s CMO, said: ‘Germany’s air transport market is broken and needs to be fixed urgently.
‘Due to extreme access costs, Germany was only able to recover 88 percent of its pre-COVID traffic; This is by far the worst recovery of any major European market.
Budget airline Ryanair announced it will cancel 24 routes to and from Germany, cutting a total of nearly 800,000 seats.
‘Until the excessive (and increasing) aviation tax, ATC charges, Security Charges and airport costs are addressed by the Government, German air traffic will continue to decline while other more competitive European countries (without aviation tax) will benefit from turbocharged Ryanair traffic growth – to Germany’s detriment.’
Ryanair claims passenger traffic could double to around 34 million passengers a year if Berlin cuts or repeals the tax.
But with no sign of relief from the government, the airline says it has no choice but to reduce its capacity and reroute its planes to countries that offer better conditions for airlines.
It comes after the airline announced last week that it would reduce its Summer 2026 schedule by 10 per cent by completely ceasing flights to and from Asturias Airport in northern Spain.
The decision comes as Aeno Monopoly continues to raise ‘uncompetitive’ airport charges at many underused regional airports across the country, which Ryanair said was ‘damaging growth’.
The move comes as part of the carrier’s wider selection of Spanish routes this winter, where it will cut 41 per cent of its flights to regional destinations including Zaragoza, Santander, Asturias and Vitoria.
Ryanair claims passenger traffic could double to around 34 million passengers a year if Berlin cuts or repeals the tax
This includes flights to the Canary Islands, which have been cut by 10 percent (equal to 400,000 seats).
All flights to northern Tenerife will be canceled from the beginning of the winter season, as well as flights to Vigo on Spain’s northwest coast from 1 January 2026.
The airline said the cuts were a ‘direct result’ of the Spanish Government’s ‘failure’ to halt Aena’s wage increases.
The Spanish Government owns a majority stake (51%) in Aena, the state-owned company that manages most Spanish airports and helipads.
