Certain airlines are expanding and minimising their routes offered in and out of German airports in 2025. Here are the changes you can expect in the new year.
Since Germany’s coalition government increased the country’s aviation tax (Luftverkehrsabgabe) in May 2024, offering routes in and out of German airports has become less profitable for airlines.
Citing the “out of control” aviation tax as a motivation, Irish budget airline Ryanair has announced that it will discontinue one-fifth of the flights it currently runs in and out of Berlin-Brandenburg BER Airport.
But according to a Europe-wide 2023 study by Greenpeace, German trains are still 51 percent more expensive than flights and despite Ryanair’s decision, many airlines will expand their services in and out of German airports in 2025.
German budget airline Condor will expand its international and domestic flights from Frankfurt in 2025. Passengers will be able to fly daily from Frankfurt to Milan, Prague, Vienna, Rome and Zurich.
Additional domestic flights to Berlin, Hamburg and Munich have been added to encourage passengers to board connecting flights to destinations such as Boston, New York and Miami.
Starting in May 2025, Lufthansa subsidiary Discover Airlines will expand its transatlantic routes from Frankfurt and Munich.
Flights between Frankfurt and Minneapolis (Minnesota) will increase services to four times per week. The airline will also launch direct flights from Munich to Calgary (Canada), Orlando (Florida) and Windhoek (Namibia).
After a five-year hiatus, UK budget airline easyJet will return to Düsseldorf Airport in the summer of 2025.
Passengers will soon be able to fly from the German city in North Rhine-Westphalia to Edinburgh, London or Nice.
Another Lufthansa subsidiary, Eurowings, will also add flights from Düsseldorf next year. From May, passengers will be able to fly Eurowings from Düsseldorf to Genoa and from Nuremberg to Malaga. Finally, from July, SWISS will offer a weekly flight between Zurich and the Baltic Sea resort of Heringsdorf.
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