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European low-cost giant Ryanair is set to shut down its base in Berlin at the end of the IATA summer season and move the seven aircraft based at the airport to other bases, ahead of the upcoming hike in airport fees. While the airline will still fly to Berlin, it will be from the airline’s other bases across Europe, thus maintaining connectivity to the city as a destination, albeit at a lower capacity.
As per the airline’s press release, the airport’s fees and charges have been trending upwards since 2019, while the passenger traffic during the same period has decreased by 30%.
Moving Seven Aircraft Out Of Berlin
Ryanair, on Friday, confirmed that it will be shutting down its base at 
Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER), with the airline’s press release indicating that this decision is directly related to the airport’s plan to raise fees by 10% starting in 2027. Considering the airline’s business model, along with its aim to always provide low fares to passengers, an increase in mandatory airport charges will force the carrier to hike up its ticket fares as well.
As such, the airline will be shutting down its base on October 24th, the day the IATA summer season ends, and relocating the seven aircraft positioned at BER to other Ryanair bases in Europe. According to the carrier, these seven aircraft will be moved to airports with lower costs, in EU states such as Sweden, Slovakia, Albania, and Italy, where aviation taxes have been abolished.
That being said, the airline will still operate flights to Berlin from other Ryanair bases in Europe. This way, the airline can offer connectivity to and from Germany’s capital city, without being exposed to the airport’s charges of basing its aircraft and other assets at the airport. The press release included the following quote from Ryanair DAC CEO, Eddie Wilson,
“Ryanair will still serve Berlin but on a/c based outside Germany and our Berlin traffic will fall by 50% from 4.5m to 2.2m pax in 2027.”
The Continual Increase In Charges Since 2019
As stated above, the airline’s decision has been directly influenced by the airport’s plan to raise charges by 10% in 2027. However, this is just the continuation of a trend airlines have been seeing at the airport since 2019. Ryanair states that the airport’s charges have increased by 50% since 2019, which is now set to experience a further hike next year, calling it “unjustified and excessive fee increases”.
The airline has also categorically listed some of the charges that have increased (across all German Airports), and some that will increase in the coming years:
|
Reason |
Existing/Previous Charge |
New/Future Charge |
|---|---|---|
|
Aviation Tax |
Previously €7.30 |
Now €15.50 |
|
Security Fee |
€10/passenger in 2024 |
€20/passenger in 2028 |
|
ATC Fee |
Previously €1/passenger |
Now €3.30/passenger |
|
Airport Fee |
A 50% increase since COVID-19, and a further 10% increase due by 2029 |
|
The airline has also noted that during this same period, the airport’s passenger traffic has decreased by almost 30%, with passenger numbers going from 36 million in 2019 to just 26 million last year. That being said, according to the airport’s corporate reports, the 26.1 million passengers recorded in 2025 was still a 2.3% increase from the 2024 passenger numbers.
Ryanair Cuts 800K Seats, 24 Routes To Germany
A look at the brutal cuts that Ryanair is making to its German network and why it’s doing this.
Slow Recovery & Other Base Closures
Because of the rising airport charges across the country, Ryanair does have a history of shutting down bases in Germany over the years. Since the onset of the pandemic, the airline has closed down its bases at Frankfurt Hahn Airport(HHN), the main 
Frankfurt Airport(FRA), and the airline’s subsidiary Lauda, shutting down its base in Düsseldorf Airport (DUS) in 2020.
That being said, the airline also indicates that the increasing taxes and charges across German airports are also a key reason as to why the German market has had the slowest post-pandemic recovery among other markets in Europe. While there were some markets that exceeded 2019 passenger levels by 2023, the same cannot be said for Germany in 2026 either.
According to Aviation Direct, commercial airports across Germany recorded 12.86 million passengers in January 2026, which is a 3.2% increase from January 2025, but only 81.7% of the capacity recorded in January of 2019. The airline in 2025 stated that while the airline has to pay €15.53 ($16.25) per passenger in taxes, other countries such as Hungary and Poland are enjoying passenger numbers exceeding 2019 levels because they have abolished aviation taxes.
