Air transport
Study: Direct flights expensive and rare
Air travel from Germany is significantly more expensive than before the corona pandemic. This is also due to the limited supply.
German customers have to dig deeper into their pockets if they want to go on vacation with a direct flight. In the regular price analysis by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) for so-called low-cost carriers, the average prices range from 61 (Wizz) to 115 euros (Eurowings) for a one-way ticket without luggage. A year ago the range for the four largest providers was 58 to 102 euros. The flights of network airlines such as Lufthansa are not included in the analysis.
The test queries on the booking day September 17th again showed clear differences between short- and long-term departure times. In principle, short-term tickets are significantly more expensive than those with a longer lead time. The German market leader Eurowings charges between just under 73 euros for a flight three months away and an average of 152.40 euros for flights the next day.
Most expensive ticket from Ryanair
However, the most expensive single ticket in the evaluation was offered by Irish Ryanair, which charged 390 euros for a seven-day flight from Cologne to Porto. The Irish are among the harshest critics of the high taxes and fees that apply to departures from German airports. Despite strong growth across Europe, Ryanair has significantly reduced its offering in Germany and announced further flight cancellations.
According to DLR, there were 4,260 low-cost flights from 14 airlines on 760 routes from German airports in the July week examined. This is a decline of more than 30 percent compared to the pre-Corona year of 2019. Across Europe, cheap flights with 68,000 departures and 10,600 routes within a week have exceeded the pre-crisis level by 2.0 percent. With 24,000 departures per week, the Ryanair flight schedule now includes 30 percent more flights than in 2019. The companies Easyjet and Wizz follow.
The most popular direct destinations from German airports remain Spain and Italy. The largest offering is in Berlin, Düsseldorf and Cologne-Bonn. However, direct flights within Germany are declining sharply. “The reasons for this decline are, on the one hand, lower demand, as meetings, for example, are increasingly being held online. On the other hand, economic conditions and reduced supply play a role,” says DLR study leader Peter Berster.
dpa
Source: Stern
