1. Ryanair Cuts 700,000 Seats: The Irish low-cost carrier plans to reduce its German capacity by approximately 10% during winter 2026/27, citing high aviation taxes and airport charges.
2. Berlin Brandenburg Loses Ryanair Base: Ryanair plans to close its BER base on October 24, 2026, relocating seven aircraft to other EU countries and cutting its Berlin seat capacity by around 50%.
3. 12 Berlin Routes to Be Cancelled: Services to Bologna, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, Marseille, Palermo, Pisa, Reggio Calabria, Tallinn, Thessaloniki, Trieste and Vilnius are set to end.
4. Bremen Faces Complete Withdrawal: Ryanair plans to discontinue all flights to and from Bremen from April 2027, removing approximately 500,000 seats annually. Hamburg will also see a 5% capacity reduction.
5. German Aviation Costs Under Scrutiny: Ryanair says abolishing the air passenger tax and halving access costs could enable it to station 30 additional aircraft in Germany, carry 34 million passengers annually and create more than 1,000 jobs.
6. German Airports Trail 2019 Passenger Levels: Frankfurt handled 63.2 million passengers in 2025, Munich 43.4 million and BER approximately 26 million. Meanwhile, Dubai International recorded a record 95.2 million passengers, highlighting growing competition from international hubs.
Ryanair plans to cut around 700,000 seats in Germany during winter 2026/27, citing high aviation taxes and airport charges. The reductions will hit Berlin Brandenburg particularly hard, while the airline’s planned withdrawal from Bremen in April 2027 adds to concerns about Germany’s competitiveness as an aviation market.
Germany’s aviation sector is facing renewed pressure as airlines reassess their operations amid rising airport charges, government-imposed taxes and other operating costs. Ryanair, one of Europe’s largest low-cost carriers, has announced further capacity reductions in Germany, including the closure of its Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER) base and the complete withdrawal of its services to and from Bremen.
The Irish airline announced on October 8, 2026, that it would offer approximately 700,000 fewer seats in Germany during the winter 2026/27 season than in winter 2025/26, representing a reduction of around 10%. The latest cuts extend a multiyear retrenchment that Ryanair says is driven by the cost of operating in Germany compared with other European markets.
The developments have renewed debate over Germany’s aviation taxes, airport pricing and the country’s ability to attract airlines, routes and passengers as international air traffic continues to expand elsewhere.
Berlin Brandenburg Airport is set to bear the brunt of Ryanair’s latest restructuring. The airline plans to close its Berlin base on October 24, 2026, relocating the seven aircraft still stationed there to airports in other European Union countries.
According to Ryanair, the move will reduce its available seat capacity in Berlin by approximately 50% during the winter season. Twelve routes are also scheduled to be discontinued completely, affecting connections to Bologna, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, Marseille, Palermo, Pisa, Reggio Calabria, Tallinn, Thessaloniki, Trieste and Vilnius.
The closure of the base does not necessarily mean that every Ryanair flight to Berlin will cease. However, the loss of locally based aircraft and the cancellation of these routes will significantly reduce the airline’s presence at the German capital’s airport.
Ryanair says charges at BER have increased by more than 50% since 2019, with a further 10% increase announced for the period from 2027 to 2029. The airline argues that these costs make it increasingly difficult to operate competitive fares and maintain capacity.
Berlin has already experienced substantial reductions in Ryanair’s services in recent years. In August 2024, the carrier announced plans to reduce its BER capacity by 20% from summer 2025, withdrawing two of the nine aircraft then based at the airport and cancelling six routes serving Brussels, Chania, Kaunas, Kraków, Luxembourg and Riga.
The latest base closure represents a further escalation of that retrenchment.
Bremen is also facing a significant setback. Ryanair plans to discontinue all flights to and from Bremen from April 2027, removing approximately 500,000 seats annually from the market.
Hamburg will experience a smaller reduction, with Ryanair cutting available seat capacity by around 5% during winter 2026/27.
The airline’s restructuring is not uniform across Germany. Ryanair says it is increasing capacity by approximately 12% at Memmingen and 10% at Cologne, while introducing winter services at Friedrichshafen and Saarbrücken for the first time.
These contrasting developments suggest that airlines are reallocating aircraft towards airports and markets where operating costs and expected demand offer more attractive commercial conditions, rather than reducing capacity equally across the country.
For affected airports, the consequences could extend beyond lost passenger numbers. Fewer flights may also affect airport revenues, tourism, regional business travel and employment across aviation-related services.
Ryanair attributes its German capacity reductions primarily to the country’s air passenger tax and the combined costs of airport charges, security fees and air traffic control services.
The airline argues that these expenses make Germany less competitive than alternative European markets. It has repeatedly called on the German government to reduce aviation-related costs, presenting lower charges as a way to encourage airlines to restore routes and station additional aircraft in the country.
Ryanair has reiterated an offer to expand its German operations if the air passenger tax is abolished and access costs are halved. Under the proposal, the airline says it could station 30 additional aircraft in Germany, increase annual passenger numbers to 34 million and create more than 1,000 jobs.
These are conditional commitments made by the airline, rather than guaranteed outcomes. Their implementation would depend on changes to the cost structure and Ryanair’s subsequent investment decisions.
The dispute reflects a wider policy challenge: governments and airports must balance the costs of aviation infrastructure, security and public services against the economic benefits associated with air connectivity. Airlines, meanwhile, can move aircraft between markets when differences in operating costs affect profitability.
Ryanair’s latest announcement follows several rounds of reductions affecting German airports.
For summer 2025, the airline announced plans to remove approximately 1.8 million seats and cancel 22 routes across Germany. Services to Dortmund, Dresden and Leipzig were among those discontinued, while Hamburg was also affected by significant capacity reductions.
For winter 2025/26, Ryanair subsequently announced further cuts amounting to approximately 800,000 seats and 24 routes across nine German airports.
The cumulative effect of these decisions has raised concerns among aviation industry representatives about Germany’s ability to retain low-cost airline capacity. Ryanair’s strategy has been to concentrate aircraft and routes in markets where it believes it can achieve stronger returns, while reducing its presence at airports it considers too expensive.
Other carriers have also adjusted their German networks. EasyJet and Lufthansa subsidiary Eurowings have reduced or discontinued certain services in recent years, although the reasons for individual route decisions can differ and should not automatically be attributed to taxes alone.
According to figures cited from the German Aviation Association (BDL), the number of aircraft based in Germany by European point-to-point airlines declined from 190 in 2019 to 130 in 2025. The association estimates that the broader reduction has been associated with more than 10,000 lost jobs and over €4 billion in annual value added.
These figures indicate the scale of the industry’s concerns, although they should be understood as BDL’s estimates rather than an independently established measure of losses caused exclusively by aviation taxes.
The reductions in airline capacity come as several major German airports continue to handle fewer passengers than before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Berlin Brandenburg Airport recorded approximately 26 million passengers in 2025, according to the figures cited in the supplied report. By comparison, Berlin Tegel and Schönefeld together handled more than 35.5 million passengers in 2019, before BER opened.
The comparison requires some context: Tegel and Schönefeld were separate airports operating before the transition to BER, so their combined traffic is not directly equivalent to the operating profile of the new airport. Nevertheless, the figures illustrate the scale of the difference between Berlin’s pre-pandemic airport system and BER’s recent passenger throughput.
The same broad pattern is visible at Germany’s two largest hubs.
Frankfurt Airport handled approximately 63.2 million passengers in 2025, compared with around 70.6 million in 2019. Munich Airport recorded approximately 43.4 million passengers, against roughly 48 million before the pandemic.
These figures show that both airports remained below their 2019 passenger totals in 2025. They do not, by themselves, establish that taxes or airline capacity reductions were the sole causes. Recovery patterns, airline network decisions, economic conditions and changes in travel demand can all influence passenger traffic.
Berlin Brandenburg Airport opened in October 2020 after years of delays and substantial cost overruns. The project was originally scheduled to open much earlier, and its final construction costs were far higher than initially anticipated.
The airport was intended to consolidate Berlin’s air traffic and strengthen the capital region’s international connectivity. However, its network remains more limited than those of Frankfurt and Munich, particularly in long-haul services and connecting traffic.
Ryanair’s decision to relocate its remaining Berlin-based aircraft adds to the challenges facing BER as it seeks to retain and attract airline capacity. The cancellation of routes may reduce direct connectivity for travellers, although competing airlines could potentially add services where sufficient demand exists.
Aviation connectivity is particularly important for a capital city with substantial tourism, business travel and international links. Maintaining those connections depends not only on airport infrastructure but also on airline economics, available aircraft, passenger demand and the attractiveness of the operating environment.
While German airports remain below their 2019 passenger totals, major hubs elsewhere are competing for a growing share of international traffic.
The figures cited for 2025 put Dubai International Airport at approximately 95.2 million passengers, Istanbul Airport at 84.4 million and Hamad International Airport in Doha at 54.3 million.
These airports have different roles, geographic advantages and network structures, and their passenger totals are not directly comparable with Germany’s airports in every respect. Dubai and Doha, in particular, benefit from the connecting traffic generated by major international airlines, while Istanbul has developed into a significant transfer hub between Europe, Asia and other regions.
Nevertheless, their growth highlights the competitive environment in which German airports operate. Strong international hubs can attract passengers through extensive connecting networks, frequent services and broad long-haul coverage.
For Germany, retaining a competitive position will require more than airport infrastructure alone. Airlines must also be able to justify the cost of operating routes, while airports and policymakers consider how charges and taxes affect the wider economic benefits of air connectivity.
Ryanair’s winter 2026/27 cuts and planned Bremen exit will test how airports, airlines and policymakers respond to the dispute over operating costs. Berlin faces the most immediate impact, with the base closure scheduled for October 24 and 12 route cancellations reducing the range of direct destinations available to passengers.
The planned Bremen withdrawal from April 2027 will add another challenge for regional connectivity, while the capacity increases announced for Memmingen and Cologne show that Ryanair continues to see opportunities in parts of the German market.
The central question is whether lower aviation costs would lead to a sustained restoration of airline capacity, or whether other commercial factors would continue to limit growth. Ryanair’s expansion proposal provides one possible scenario, but its delivery depends on policy changes and the airline’s final investment decisions.
Germany’s aviation difficulties should therefore be viewed as a combination of cost pressures, airline network strategies, post-pandemic recovery and competition from other European and international hubs. Ryanair’s latest cuts make the debate more urgent, but the long-term outcome will depend on how effectively Germany addresses these interconnected challenges
