These fees are now the highest in all of Europe, encouraging airlines to avoid German airports.
Even economically strong areas such as Stuttgart, which is home to companies such as Mercedes, Porsche and Bosch, lack direct connections to major European cities. On the departures board you look in vain for flights to Brussels, Dublin, Bologna or Madrid. These targets, which were still introduced before the pandemic, have been canceled in the second year since.
The location is not limited to Stuttgart. Other German airports are also struggling with very low flight offerings, which are well below 2019 levels. While the rest of Europe is slowly recovering and almost returning to pre-crisis levels, Germany is lagging behind.
High fees deter airlines. Ryanair has criticized the planned increase in fees and warned of massive economic losses for Germany. The airline only offers a quarter of its pre-pandemic capacity at Berlin Airport.
The industry is calling for immediate government burden reduction and the use of aviation tax revenues to finance climate-neutral fuels. The Federal Transport Ministry is ready to talk about reducing the charges.
