Flight of Capital: How High Taxes Are Grounding German Aviation

When a government treats an entire industry as a fiscal piggy bank rather than vital infrastructure, capital simply flies away. Berlin Brandenburg Airport, which opened nine years late and cost seven billion euros instead of the budgeted two, was intended to showcase national competence. Instead, it has become a monument to administrative mismanagement and punitive cost structures. Ryanair’s decision to close its BER base on October 24 and relocate its seven stationed aircraft to other European nations is not a mystery—it is the predictable outcome of excessive air traffic taxes, security surcharges, and rising terminal charges.

The Irish low-cost carrier is cutting 700,000 seats from its German winter 2026 schedule, marking a ten percent drop. Twelve direct routes out of Berlin, ranging from Marseille to Pisa, are being eliminated. Hamburg faces a five percent reduction, while Bremen will see a complete exit by April 2027, removing another 500,000 seats annually. The motivation is clear enough: terminal fees at BER have risen by over 50 percent since 2019, with an additional ten percent increase planned between 2027 and 2029. Predictably, passenger traffic in Berlin dropped by nearly 30 percent over the same period.

Ryanair is hardly the only carrier adjusting to these uncompetitive conditions. Competitors like Easyjet and Lufthansa subsidiary Eurowings have also steadily reduced their domestic footprints. Figures from the Federal Association of the German Air Transport Industry reveal that point-to-point aircraft stationed in Germany dropped from 190 in 2019 to just 130 in 2025. This retreat has cost the economy roughly 10,000 jobs and 70 million euros in lost annual value creation. Meanwhile, smaller airports like Memmingen and Cologne, which actively work to trim fees, are seeing capacity increases of 12 and 10 percent.

While domestic hubs suffer under cost pressures, global competitors operate on an entirely different trajectory. Frankfurt and Munich remain well below their 2019 passenger figures, recording 63.2 million and 43.4 million travellers in 2025 respectively. BER managed just 26 million passengers, offering at most eight long-haul direct connections depending on the season. In contrast, foreign transit hubs are setting records: Dubai handled 95.2 million international passengers in 2025, Istanbul reached 84.4 million, and Doha recorded 54.3 million. German policymakers have imposed a cost environment so burdensome that airlines simply find it far more profitable to grow elsewhere.

Written by Andreas Hofer andreas.hofer@alpineweekly.com