Status: 06.01.2023 5:49 p.m
Flying abroad is becoming more popular again. But especially for shorter distances, Germans are increasingly switching to the car or the train. This is also noticeable in a European comparison.
There will be more flights to and from Germany again. But so far there is not as much as before the crisis: For the first half of 2023, the industry association BDL expects a seat offer in the range of 78 percent of the pre-corona level from 2019. The strongest recovery from the pre-crisis level can be seen on long-haul routes, where traffic to and from North America is the most important driver. “An expected increase in China traffic as a result of the elimination of the entry quarantine is not yet visible in the current data.”
The largest German airport hub, Frankfurt, can benefit from this in particular: compared to the first half of 2019, 84 percent of the seats at the level at the time are offered there. “Frankfurt is the most important location in Germany for transfer passengers on long-haul flights,” according to the BDL.
Traffic in Germany is shifting
According to the BDL, the total number of seats available in the first half of 2023 on all flights from, to and in Germany will be 107.7 million. This is growth of 20 percent compared to the first half of 2022. However, Germany is lagging behind its European neighbors in the recovery, where the number of seats has already reached 91 percent compared to 2019. This emerges from data from the BDL.
One of the reasons for the comparatively weak recovery in Germany is the weak domestic air traffic: It continues to stagnate at just 56 percent of 2019. “Here, among other things, the shift in traffic to road and rail is noticeable,” says the BDL.
Budget airlines avoid Germany
In addition, the low-cost airlines are avoiding German airports: Their offer on German flight schedules is not even two-thirds of the level before the crisis. Providers such as Ryanair or Wizz have greatly expanded their offer after Corona and significantly exceed the value from 2019 in the rest of Europe.
The low-cost airlines avoid the large German airports because they charge extremely high fees in comparison. Ryanair has apparently already drawn the announced conclusions: The airline only wants to offer more connections at the airports in Dortmund, Frankfurt/Hahn, Karlsruhe and Memmingen. This is already noticeable in Memmingen: the number of seats there in the first half of 2023 is 148 percent higher than in the same period in 2019.