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Ryanair machine in Berlin-Schoenefeld: Only 11 instead of 18 aircraft
Photo: Patrick Pleul / dpa
The Irish flight discounter Ryanair has asked the capital's airport BER to reduce the fees for handling their aircraft.
"The government and Berlin Airport should act now," the company said.
They should offer competitive airport charges so that the aviation sector at the location does not shrink to the level of much smaller cities.
An airport spokeswoman replied that the charges at BER are comparable to those of other large German airports.
The Irish airline is not alone in its complaint about high fees.
Ryanair's competitor Easyjet has already announced that it will further reduce its base in Schönefeld.
With the winter flight plan, only 11 instead of 18 aircraft should be stationed there, as the company announced on Tuesday.
The airport expects significant losses in passengers and sales.
Easyjet had already reduced its presence during the corona crisis – as did Ryanair.
Instead of 13, the Irish airline only has 9 aircraft in Schönefeld.
However, BER remains the largest base of the low-cost airline in Germany.
Ryanair did not comment on whether further reductions are planned or whether the fleet at the location could even be increased due to Easyjet's withdrawal.
The Lufthansa subsidiary Eurowings has already announced that it will recruit the affected Easyjet employees.
According to Easyjet, up to 275 of the now 800 pilots and flight attendants have to go.
Even after Air Berlin went bankrupt, other airlines soon filled the gap, including Easyjet, Ryanair and Eurowings.
After the corona crisis, however, growth in air traffic is only slowly returning.
The BER operators do not expect to be able to handle as many passengers before 2025 as they did at the old locations Tegel and Schönefeld before Corona.
At that time there were around 36 million.
17 million passengers were last expected this year.
mik/dpa-AFX