Two new destinations on the flight schedule Ryanair boosts services at Cologne/Bonn Airport this summer
Cologne · Traffic at German airports is not yet back to pre-Corona levels. Ryanair is increasing its services at Cologne/Bonn Airport. Two new destinations are also on the flight schedule.
If the Irish budget airline Ryanair has its way, air travel should return to its pre-Corona level much sooner. At least Ryanair will bring its capacity this summer to 130 per cent of the same period in 2019, as CEO Eddie Wilson told the press in Cologne on Tuesday. At Cologne/Bonn Airport, the airline is offering its most extensive summer schedule to date. From there, 39 routes will be offered, including two new connections to Lanzarote and Venice. Wilson announced increased frequencies on more than ten routes
While air travel is considered the most climate-damaging means of transport and has therefore been included in European emissions trading since 2012, Wilson criticised distortions of competition due to unequal VAT rules and high airport charges. For example, customers pay the full 19 per cent VAT rate on domestic flights, while long-haul and transfer flights are exempt from VAT.
In the summer timetable, which started at the end of March, Ryanair offers more than 370 weekly flights, which is seven per cent more than in the summer of 2022. Even though Ryanair, like the other low-cost airlines Eurowings, Easyjet and Wizz, has significantly increased prices compared to 2019, according to the Low-Cost Monitor of the German Aerospace Research Centre, the Irish airline advertises that customers could fly at rates of less than 30 euros when booking a one-way flight until June.
As before, Ryanair will have five aircraft based at Cologne/Bonn Airport, including two new Boeing 737 Maxs, which Ryanair has renamed "Gamechangers" for better marketing, as the previous models were sent into forced retirement after two crashes. The Ryanair group, which also includes Buzz, Lauda and Malta Air, is investing 20 billion US dollars in new planes that produce 16 per cent fewer greenhouse gas emissions and 40 per cent less noise, according to Wilson. In addition, these aircraft could carry four per cent more passengers, so that the carbon footprint would also be better than that of older commercial aircraft.
Wilson expects no problems at security checkpoints
He said high taxes and fees in Germany are to blame for the fact that German airports have not yet recovered from the Corona crisis and overall capacity is only 80 per cent of pre-Covid levels. "While fees in Germany are skyrocketing, German holidaymakers, small businesses and families continue to pay horrendous fares that can be up to 500 per cent higher than Ryanair," the CEO said. Referring to the chaos at German airports last year, when there were sometimes hours of waiting at security checkpoints and many flights were cancelled, Wilson said he no longer expected such problems. On Cologne/Bonn Airport, he said: "This is one of our best airports".
(Original text: Ulla Thiede / Translation: Mareike Graepel)
