Overview
- In a public newsletter to policymakers, Lufthansa cautioned that further reductions are likely without relief on taxes and fees.
- CEO Jens Ritter said airports under review include Bremen, Dresden, Cologne, Leipzig, Münster, Nuremberg and Stuttgart.
- The federal government’s 2026 budget draft contains no measures to ease costs for flights from Germany despite earlier coalition pledges to roll back the 2024 air traffic tax increase.
- Lufthansa and industry data point to steep cost jumps, including this year’s increases in arrival and departure fees by about 40% and air navigation charges by roughly 25%, with per‑departure state costs up as much as 128% since 2019.
- No specific route cuts have been decided for summer 2026, with Lufthansa planning to publish the schedule in late October or early November and tying outcomes to political decisions.