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Ryanair cuts 30% of flights, 1M pax and 1,000 jobs at Frankfurt Hahn

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27-Oct-2010 Ryanair, the world’s favourite airline, today (27th Oct) announced 30% flight cuts and the loss of 1m passengers at its Frankfurt Hahn base from summer 2011 following the introduction of the German Govt’s €8 tourist tax.

Ryanair's summer 2011 schedule will be cut from 11 to 8 based aircraft with 30% fewer flights (from over 500 to less than 400 flights) each week.

As a direct result of Germany's new €8 tourist tax Frankfurt Hahn's traffic will decline by 1m passengers p.a. leading to the loss of 1,000 jobs in Hahn including 150 Ryanair pilots and cabin crew jobs. Ryanair will also close nine routes from Frankfurt Hahn to Agadir, Berlin (from 10thJan 2011), Gdansk, Gothenburg, Klagenfurt, Prague, Santiago, Seville and Wroclaw while 15 other routes will suffer reduced frequencies.

Impact of Germany's €8 tourist tax on Frankfurt Hahn

Routes
Weekly Flgts
Traffic (PA)
Jobs
Summer 2010
54
532
3.9m
3,900
Summer 2011
45
382
2.9m
2,900
Hahn Losses
-9
-150
-1.0m
-1,000

Ryanair deeply regrets that the German Govt's €8 tourist tax makes Germany an uncompetitive tourist destination at a time when many other EU Govts (including Holland, Belgium, Greece and Spain) have scrapped tourist taxes altogether and/or reduced airport charges, in some cases to zero, in order to grow traffic and tourism.

Speaking in Frankfurt, Ryanair's Michael Cawley said today:

"The German Govt's €8 tourist tax will do significant damage to traffic and tourism in Germany next year. In summer 2011 Ryanair will reduce our Frankfurt Hahn fleet from 11 to just 8 based aircraft. Flights will be cut by 30%, to less than 400 per week, with the loss of 1m passengers p.a. and 1,000 jobs at Frankfurt Hahn. International experience shows that tourist taxes have caused substantial traffic collapse in both Ireland and the UK this year and we believe that this ill advised €8 tourist tax will do similar damage to German tourism and jobs.

Ryanair will move these three aircraft to Ryanair bases outside Germany which welcome tourists instead of taxing them. We urge the German Govt to look again at the damaging impact of tourist taxes in Ireland and the UK before implementing this €8 tourist tax which will lead to similar declines in traffic and jobs at German airports."