Tuesday, August 20, 2024 Ryanair urges Germany to cut soaring aviation taxes and fees, warning of a potential 1.5M seat reduction in Summer 2025, further damaging the country’s air travel recovery. Ryanair, Europe’s leading airline, today (August 20), urged the German government to immediately reduce its exorbitant air access costs by reversing the recent 24% hike in Aviation Tax, with the ultimate goal of abolishing it entirely, or risk losing an additional 10% of Ryanair’s German operations (equating to 1.
5 million seats) for Summer 2025. While other EU countries like Hungary, Italy, Poland, and Sweden are reducing or eliminating their Aviation Taxes, Germany’s tax, now 24% higher, stands as the second highest in the EU, negatively impacting the country’s air travel sector. Germany’s air travel recovery remains significantly behind the rest of Europe, reaching only 82% of pre-Covid levels – the lowest across the continent.
Country Recovery Govt Tax Spain 113% €0 Italy 111% €0 Poland 110% €0 Ireland 107% €0 Germany 82% €15.53 In addition to urging the elimination of the Aviation Tax, Ryanair has also called on the German government to promptly reduce the skyrocketing Air Traffic Control (ATC) charges, which have doubled since 2019, and to defer the planned 50% hike in Security Fees set for January 2025. These exorbitant government-imposed fees continue to harm Germany’s air travel, tourism, economy, and consumers, while merely supporting Lufthansa�.