Germany's aviation industry is urging reductions in taxes and other charges as a growing number of airlines prepare to significantly scale back flights within the country.
FRANKFURT, Oct. 21 (Xinhua) -- Germany's aviation industry is urging reductions in taxes and other charges as a growing number of airlines prepare to significantly scale back flights within the country.
The government should lower taxes on flights and eliminate air transport taxes to make travel more affordable, said Jens Bischof, president of the German Aviation Association, as quoted by the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on Sunday.
Bischof, who is also the CEO of Lufthansa's subsidiary Eurowings, made the remarks as rising costs have cast doubt on the viability of operating domestic flights in Germany.
Earlier this month, budget airline Eurowings announced plans to cut over 1,000 flights to and from Hamburg and relocate them to other locations in 2025. In addition to the domestic cancellations, the airline also removed six European destinations and North Africa from its Hamburg flight schedule.
Rising costs have been cited as the reason for the cancellations. "Flying to and from Germany is becoming increasingly expensive and unprofitable on many routes," the company said in a statement.
Eurowings' flight reduction announcement coincided with Ryanair's decision to significantly scale back its operations in Germany.
Ryanair announced in a recent press release that up to 1.8 million seats for summer 2025 in Germany will be eliminated due to a large-scale flight cancellation plan.
Citing "high and rising taxes," the company confirmed that "Ryanair will close its locations in Dortmund, Dresden and Leipzig while reducing its offerings in Hamburg by 60 percent, eliminating a total of 22 routes for the summer of 2025."
Germany has the highest state taxes and fees in Europe and the German government has failed to address the excessively high access costs, Ryanair CEO Eddie Wilson said.
Condor, a German leisure airline, announced its plan to cut flights in Hamburg last Monday. As the third largest airline at the airport, Condor is set to reduce its flight program from Hamburg by 13 percent for next summer.
"We are not only cutting capacity in Hamburg, but also our planned growth in summer 2025 -- a logical consequence of the threat of a completely disproportionate increase in charges in Hamburg," Condor CEO Peter Gerber said.
Increasing costs are forcing the company to relocate its flight from Hamburg to other locations and raise prices, which is "particularly regrettable for our customers," he added.
Flying to and from Germany is "too expensive" even for Lufthansa, according to a report published by the German flag carrier in April.
The report said that state-imposed charges at German airports, such as Frankfurt and Stuttgart, for an intra-European flight using a medium-haul A320 aircraft amount to around 4,000 euros (4,342 U.S. dollars). This is significantly higher than the fees in other European cities, like Madrid and Barcelona, which charge only 600 euros.
Location costs continue to rise in Germany. The air traffic tax increased by 77 percent in 2020, while air traffic control fees have more than doubled since 2021, with an additional 20 percent rise implemented since May of this year.
"The extreme increase in government-imposed costs on air transport is leading to a further reduction in supply. More and more airlines are avoiding German airports or canceling important connections," Carsten Spohr, CEO of Lufthansa, told German media earlier this month.
In stark contrast to other European countries where the aviation industry has been recovering strongly, the domestic flight network in Germany -- excluding Frankfurt and Munich -- has fallen to just 25 percent of its pre-pandemic level, Spohr said. (1 euro = 1.09 U.S. dollar) ■