Aviation taxes, charges, security levies, ATC bills and environmentally oriented restrictions on fossil-produced fuels are impositions that have an impact on airlines and airports alike across the global spectrum.
But few bear the brunt to the same degree as they do in Germany.
Now a range of organisations, including trade representative bodies and airlines as diverse as Ryanair and Lufthansa, have directed their ire at the government in Germany as passenger numbers, which did not increase to the same degree as in other European countries in 2023, failed to recover in 2024, as well as there being even bigger problems forecast for 2025.
The position is getting noticeably worse, not better.
The one saving grace is that airport charges to airlines are not keeping pace with these increases.
However, airlines are now openly talking not only about reducing services, but of upping sticks altogether.
This might just be an example of ‘The Art of the Deal’ to use a currently popular phrase, to put pressure on whatever government is formed after the federal election on 23-Feb-2025 to think long, hard and fast about whether it wants a thriving aviation market or not.
But there is no certainty at all about the outcome.