Overview
- Since 2019 scheduled flights in Germany dropped by about 300,000 trips and more than 35 million seats were removed from timetables, leaving total flight numbers under 1.4 million.
- Ryanair announced a major pullback in early October that will cut roughly 700,000 seats in Germany and close bases including its Berlin operation, accelerating visible service losses at airports such as BER.
- The federal government reduced the air‑traffic tax on 1 July 2026 but industry groups including the BDL say the partial rollback does not make German airports competitive with other European markets.
- Recovery has been uneven with holiday routes recovered or above 2019 levels while domestic and many business-focused international connections remain sharply down, shifting traffic toward leisure‑focused regional airports.
- Local businesses, hotels and trade fairs face lost customers and longer travel times, and airlines are reallocating scarce aircraft to more profitable southwest and low‑cost hubs, which could lock in a new, uneven map of connectivity.