Ryanair criticism: Air traffic tax threatens Austria's air travel!

Ryanair criticism: Air traffic tax threatens Austria's air travel!

The Irish low -cost airline Ryanair has announced massive changes in their flight operations that affect both Austria and Germany. In Austria, Ryanair plans to introduce five new routes in the summer of 2025, including Vienna-Salerno and Linz-London, while the CEO Michael O’Leary at the same time criticizes the high air traffic tax, which in his opinion endangers the country's competitiveness. With an increase in traffic volume by 160 percent since 2019, Ryanair nevertheless shows commitment to the Austrian market, especially for regional airports such as Linz and Salzburg. Nevertheless, the airline threatens to make future growth plans depend on the reduction of the high tax and fee load, such as reported.

Five new routes in Austria are in a strong contrast to Ryanair's retreat from the German market, where the airline wants to reduce seats by 1.8 million for the summer of 2025. Airports such as Dortmund, Dresden and Leipzig are completely canceled, and large cities such as Berlin and Hamburg are also faced with reduced offers. O’Leary calls the current market conditions "sick" and criticizes the increasing costs in Germany that force its airline to operate less profitably. This happens against the background of a general increase in fees in German airspace, which severely restricts Ryanair in its competitiveness, such as aviation.direct

The consequences of these measures are serious: smaller airports that depend heavily on Ryanair's connections could suffer as well as travelers who have to adjust to less selection and possibly higher prices. Against this background, other airlines are under pressure, such as Lufthansa and Condor, which also complain of high costs. If the framework conditions are not improved, Ryanair could even be forced to re -evaluate its strategy throughout Europe.