Status: 07.01.2022 2:02 p.m.
The low-cost flight provider Ryanair is closing its base at Frankfurt Airport in March. The reason for this is the increased take-off and landing fees. The group accuses the federal government of distorting competition.
Due to increased take-off and landing fees, Ryanair is giving up its location at Frankfurt Airport. The five aircraft still stationed there would be relocated to cheaper airports by March 31 this year, the Irish company announced today. Nuremberg was given as an example, where two aircraft are to be stationed.
Ryanair has been operating its base at Germany’s largest airport since the 2017 summer schedule. The aim at that time was to set up an international hub for European flights. Europe’s largest low-cost airline benefited from an incentive program run by the operator Fraport with reduced flight fees for new providers. But that is the end of it now.
Ryanair complains about distortion of competition
Passengers with tickets that have already been booked will be notified in the coming days and will receive refunds, the low-cost airline said. In the summer flight schedule published so far, however, Frankfurt remains a destination for the Irish. The company did not initially comment on the scope of the future offer with aircraft from other bases. For the crews, Ryanair says it offers alternative jobs in its rapidly growing European network.
According to Ryanair, the reason for the dissolution of the base is the decision of the airport to further increase take-off and landing fees in the current tense phase at the turn of the year. “Instead of giving Ryanair an incentive to stay and grow, Frankfurt has decided to sell traffic and jobs by increasing airport charges,” the group said in a statement. While the airline made investments of 200 million dollars in German locations without aid, the federal government is said to have distorted competition with the billions in aid for Lufthansa.
Fraport considers criticism to be unjustified
The airport operator Fraport rejected the criticism as unjustified. With an approved price increase of 4.3 percent, the turnstiles would be very low in a European comparison, said a spokesman for the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”. The group, which is supported by the state of Hesse and the city of Frankfurt, has to think about the utilization of Pier G, which is almost completed, and which is explicitly tailored to the needs of direct flight providers such as Ryanair. Due to the Corona crisis, however, the opening was only planned together with the entire Terminal 3 in 2026.
The actually highly profitable Ryanair group recently lowered its forecast for the current financial year due to the pandemic. The company is now calculating with a deficit of 250 million to 450 million euros for the financial year running until the end of March 2022. When it comes to the number of passengers, the group expects less than 100 million passengers instead of over 100 million.