Mobility: Domestic German air traffic is becoming less important

In terms of the number of flights and passengers, air traffic within Germany has become less important since 2019. According to the Federal Statistical Office, from January to October 2023, a good fifth (20.6 percent) of the approximately 715,500 flights took off from one of Germany’s main airports to a domestic destination. At the same time, 11.4 percent of the 84.3 million passengers departed during this period were traveling within Germany. The picture was similar in the same period last year.

In the pre-Corona period of 2019, however, 26.7 percent of all around 942,100 flights departing in Germany were domestic flights. The difference in passenger numbers was even clearer: from January to October 2019, 18.3 percent of the 107.2 million passengers who took off were traveling to destinations within the country.

At the same time, according to the information, the importance of domestic flights as a feeder to destinations abroad is growing. In the first ten months of last year, 28.2 percent of passengers traveled to another country after a domestic flight. In the comparable period of 2019, the share was 17.0 percent.

In the first half of 2024, air traffic within Germany will also remain significantly behind the numbers from the pre-Corona period, as the industry association BDL reports in its forecast up to and including June. Outside the Frankfurt and Munich hubs, supply has even fallen by 12 percent compared to the same period last year. The bottom line is that only 53 percent of the seats from 2019 would be offered within Germany. According to the forecast, it is 95 percent on long-haul routes and 89 percent on short- and medium-haul routes to destinations outside of Germany. The number of flights available remains particularly limited in Dresden, Stuttgart and Berlin.