The next setback for Hamburg Airport: After the Irish low-cost airline Ryanair, Eurowings is also canceling flights. Other locations could follow.
Like the Irish low-cost airline Ryanair, the Lufthansa subsidiary Eurowings is also reducing its flight offerings for the coming year. The company refers to “sharply increased location costs” at Hamburg Airport. That’s why the airline will “in a first step remove over 1,000 flights to and from Hamburg from its program and relocate them to other locations.”
In particular, Eurowings is canceling the connection from Hamburg to Cologne-Bonn Airport. “In addition to these domestic German cancellations, Eurowings is expected to remove six further destinations in Europe and North Africa from the program from Hamburg,” explains the company.
“This development could have been avoided,” says Eurowings boss Jens Bischof. “But the airport’s plans for a completely disproportionate increase in fees leave us no choice.” Due to the constantly rising infrastructure costs in Germany, Eurowings will also examine further route adjustments at other airports – “in favor of flight offerings in other EU countries”.
The Irish competitor Ryanair announced on Thursday that it would reduce its offer in Hamburg by 60 percent, also citing rising taxes and fees. The Irish airline is also reducing its offerings in Berlin by 20 percent. Ryanair called on the federal government to cut costs and “repair the ailing German air transport system”. First, the aviation tax must be abolished, the company demanded.
