Ryanair, Europe’s largest airline, today (Fri 7th January) confirmed that it will close its Frankfurt am Main base on 31st March 2022 and has reallocated these five aircraft to airports that have responded with lower airport charges to stimulate traffic recovery.
In a post Covid recovery phase, airports must incentivise traffic recovery, unfortunately Frankfurt instead of providing traffic recovery incentives, has chosen to increase prices even further, making Frankfurt uncompetitive with European airports. While Ryanair continues to invest in Germany (as evidenced by a $200m investment in a new two aircraft Nuremberg base), the German Govt continues to protect legacy carriers, such as Lufthansa who have soaked up €9bn in State aid rather than introduce non-discriminatory traffic recovery schemes open to all airlines.
Ryanair will now deliver even more growth across Europe in Summer 2022 with 65 new B737 8-200 ‘Gamechanger’ aircraft. There are a multitude of airports throughout Europe seeking to attract this Ryanair growth since our competitors continue to reduce both their fleets and capacity. Efficient operations and competitive airport fees are key to traffic recovery post Covid and instead of incentivising Ryanair to stay and grow, Frankfurt have opted to drive away traffic and jobs by increasing airport charges.
Regrettably all Ryanair Frankfurt am Main based pilots and cabin crew have today received notification of the base closure at the end of March 2022. All flight crew can secure alternative positions within the Ryanair network, since Ryanair is leading Europe’s post-Covid recovery as it accelerates growth (in jobs and traffic) with the delivery of 210 aircraft.
All Ryanair passengers impacted by these flight cancellations will receive notifications and refunds over the coming days.
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