Passenger numbers will fall: Ryanair withdrawal deals BER airport a “severe blow”

The low-cost airline Ryanair is thinning out its presence at the capital's airport in view of the high location costs. According to forecasts, the Irish airline's traffic volume will be halved. “Everything should now be put to the test” at BER.

Berlin Airport wants to respond to Ryanair's cuts with a round of savings and postponing investments. We will take operational countermeasures and look at all personnel and material costs, said airport boss Aletta von Massenbach. “Everything comes under scrutiny.” Investments will continue to be made to reduce costs and explore new revenue opportunities. In the current and next year, the number of passengers at BER will fall differently than planned. The reason is that Ryanair's decline in passengers can be buffered, but not completely compensated for, said the manager.

Berlin Airport is clearly lagging behind developments since the Corona crisis. In 2019, before the virus pandemic, Berlin's Tegel and Schönefeld airports processed a total of 35.65 million people. Last year there were only 26.1 million at the capital's BER airport. For 2026, there will now be a decline to around 25.7 million passengers instead of the targeted 26.5 million, said von Massenbach.

The situation is currently at the same level as last year, but from November Ryanair's reduced winter flight schedule will take effect. In 2027 there will only be around 25.2 million passengers - 1.8 million euros less than planned. Airlines such as Wizz Air and the Lufthansa subsidiary Eurowings expanded their flight programs, but ultimately could not compensate for the large decline in Ryanair flights, explained the BER boss.

The airport is suffering from the fact that low-cost airlines such as the British Easyjet and especially Ryanair, as the European number one and top dog in Berlin, are significantly thinning out their programs and justifying this with excessive location costs in Germany. “I can understand the frustration behind it,” said von Massenbach. As president of the airport association ADV, she is the chief lobbyist for all airports and has long denounced the state costs for flying in Germany as being too high.

Ryanair is withdrawing 700,000 seats in Berlin and Hamburg for the winter flight schedule alone. The Irish are moving all seven aircraft stationed at BER to cheaper airports, but are still flying to the capital. Ryanair's traffic volume in Berlin is expected to roughly halve to around 2.5 million passengers in 2027. “This is a severe blow,” said von Massenbach.