{"id":415334,"date":"2026-04-24T14:33:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T14:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/415334\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T14:33:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T14:33:08","slug":"ryanair-to-close-its-berlin-operating-base-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/415334\/","title":{"rendered":"Ryanair to close its Berlin operating base \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/ryanair\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/ryanair\/\">Ryanair<\/a> announced \u200con Friday that it will close its operating base \u200cin Berlin and reduce its flights to and from \u200bGermany\u2019s capital by 50 per cent in its winter schedule, citing higher fees and taxes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">All seven Berlin-based aircraft will be \u200brelocated to lower-cost airports in other European countries such \u2060as Sweden, Slovakia, Albania and Italy, the Ireland-based \u200ccompany \u200csaid \u200bin a statement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Berlin-based pilots and cabin crew received notification on Friday \u2060of the \u200bintended base closure from \u200bOctober 24th, according to the statement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cAll flight \u200ccrew can secure alternative \u200bpositions elsewhere in the Ryanair network across Europe,\u201d \u2060Ryanair said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Calling German aviation \u201cbroken,\u201d Ryanair said the decision follows another 10 per cent fee increase in Berlin that has left the company with no alternative but to close the base. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The carrier said the move will result in the loss of more than 2 million Ryanair seats per year, and a reduction of traffic to 2.2 million passengers in 2027 from 4.5 million now.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cWith no meaningful cost reform in Berlin or in Germany nationally, we have no alternative but to switch aircraft from Germany to other more competitive markets elsewhere in Europe while Germany and Berlin Airport continue to fail,\u201d Ryanair said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Ryanair \u2060has \u200brepeatedly criticised Germany and its airports for the level of fees and taxes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Berlin has long struggled to establish itself as a major hub alongside Frankfurt and Munich, with only a limited number of intercontinental connections and now a shrinking set of regional flights.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Other international airlines have long complained that flying to and from German airports was too expensive and have threatened to \u200creduce their \u2060presence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Germany\u2019s government approved plans on April 1st to reduce air traffic tax \u200cfrom July, taking it back down to May \u200b2024 levels in an attempt to \u200bboost the sector. &#8211; Reuters\/Bloomberg<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ryanair announced \u200con Friday that it will close its operating base \u200cin Berlin and reduce its flights to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":415335,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,61,60,1899],"class_list":{"0":"post-415334","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-ryanair"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=415334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415334\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/415335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}