Ryanair flights to Berlin are set for a major cut after the airline said on Friday, 24 April ET, that it intends to close its seven-aircraft Berlin base on 24 October 2026. The carrier said the move will reduce its winter flights to and from the city by 50% and cut annual Berlin passenger numbers from 4. 5 million to 2. 2 million. The decision comes as the airline blames rising aviation taxes and high airport fees in Germany for making the market less competitive.
Seven aircraft to be moved out of Berlin
The airline said all seven Berlin-based aircraft will be reallocated to lower-cost airports in other EU states. It named Sweden, Slovakia, Albania and Italy as places where aviation taxes have been abolished, and said staff at the Berlin facility are being offered transfers to other European bases.
Ryanair said flights in and out of Berlin will still be served from October 2026, but with aircraft based at other airports rather than at the Berlin base itself. the cut is a direct response to Berlin Airport’s notice that fees will rise by another 10% from 2027 to 2029, after already increasing by 50% since Covid.
Ryanair flights and the dispute over costs
The airline said Ryanair flights in Germany have been hit by what it described as an uncompetitive policy environment. Eddie Wilson, chief executive of Ryanair DAC, said: “German aviation is broken. The government admits that it is uncompetitive, yet there is no strategy to cut aviation taxes or high airport fees. ” He said the company had warned that Germany would lose traffic, connectivity, jobs and trade.
Ryanair also said it has been forced since 2019 to close bases in Frankfurt, Düsseldorf and Stuttgart and to stop all flights to Dresden, Leipzig and Dortmund. It said those moves led to the loss of 13 aircraft from those bases.
Reaction from labor and broader pressure on airlines
The German trade union Verdi criticized the plan as a “purely profit-oriented corporate strategy. ” Dennis Dacke, head of Verdi’s federal aviation division, said employees had for too long been treated like “disposable commodities” while the company based location decisions on short-term profit interests.
The airline announcement comes during wider turbulence across aviation, with surging costs following the conflict in the Gulf and jet fuel prices more than doubling since the conflict began at the end of February. Ryanair’s boss, Michael O’Leary, has warned that as much as 10% of late summer flights could be canceled if shipping does not return to normal quickly.
What Berlin travelers may see next
Berlin airport has been approached for comment. The immediate effect, if the plan goes ahead, would be fewer Ryanair flights to Berlin from October 2026 and a reduced footprint in one of the airline’s key German markets.
For passengers, the next phase will be the timetable shift as Berlin services are operated from aircraft based outside Germany. Ryanair flights to Berlin will remain in place, but the carrier has made clear that its network decision is designed to push capacity to lower-cost airports elsewhere in Europe.
