Ryanair is to shut its Berlin operating base and cut its winter schedule to the German capital in half, blaming soaring aviation taxes in the country.<\/p>\n
The Irish budget carrier said its relocation of seven aircraft to other centres would reduce its Berlin passenger numbers from 4.5 million to 2.2 million a year, with flights in and out of the city served from October by planes based at other airports.<\/p>\n
Staff at the facility are being offered transfers to other European bases.<\/p>\n
Eddie Wilson, the chief executive of the airline\u2019s main operating company, Ryanair DAC, said: \u201cGerman aviation is broken. The government admits that it is uncompetitive, yet there is no strategy to cut aviation taxes or high airport fees \u2013 despite Ryanair warning that Germany<\/a> would lose traffic, connectivity, jobs and trade.<\/p>\n \u201cSince 2019, Ryanair has been forced to close its bases in Frankfurt, D\u00fcsseldorf and Stuttgart \u2026 in addition to stopping all flights to Dresden, Leipzig and Dortmund.\u201d Ryanair said these closures had led to the loss of 13 aircraft from those bases.<\/p>\n The German trade union Verdi criticised Ryanair\u2019s plans as a \u201cpurely profit-oriented corporate strategy\u201d. Dennis Dacke, the head of Verdi\u2019s federal aviation division, said the airline\u2019s employees had for too long been treated like \u201cdisposable commodities\u201d while the company based its location decisions on short-term profit interests.<\/p>\n The announcement of the withdrawal has come at a time when the airline industry is in turmoil as it wrestles with surging costs following the conflict in the Gulf. The price of jet fuel has more than doubled<\/a> since the conflict began at the end of February.<\/p>\n Penalties on airlines that cancel UK flights because of jet fuel shortages<\/a> have been eased, and Ryanair\u2019s boss, Michael O\u2019Leary, has warned of having to cancel as much as 10% of late summer flights<\/a> if shipping does not return to normal quickly.<\/p>\n