German LCC Market Shifts As Ryanair, Eurowings Adjust Networks

Germany’s LCC sector is showing fresh signs of adjustment, with Ryanair and Eurowings the latest to trim routes and rebalance capacity as the country’s recovery lags its European peers.

Ryanair says it has cancelled 24 routes across nine airports during the winter 2025-26 season, highlighting that the move will take capacity below winter 2024-25 levels. The ULCC is blaming what it calls the federal government’s “failure to address Germany’s high access costs.”

While the Dublin-based airline frequently pressures governments and airports on tax and cost issues, its latest network change comes amid slower growth in Germany’s market compared with elsewhere in Europe. Although overall seat capacity in Germany is set to rise 2.8% this winter to 49.2 million departure seats, the total remains 11.2% below pre-pandemic levels, according to OAG Schedules Analyser data.

LCCs account for 14.4 million of those winter seats—up 6% year-on-year but still 16.4% lower than in winter 2019-20. By contrast, markets such as Spain and Italy have grown their low-cost segments by 43% and 55%, respectively, compared with pre-pandemic levels.

Ryanair’s announcement coincides with confirmation that Lufthansa subsidiary Eurowings will close its base at Dortmund Airport (DTM) after the summer 2025 season. The carrier will end four of its five routes from the Ruhr-region airport—Catania, Kavala, Thessaloniki and Split—retaining only its Palma de Mallorca service.

OAG figures show that Eurowings’ capacity share at Dortmund has fallen from 18% in summer 2024 to 9.9% in summer 2025. Departure seats are down from 204,492 to 116,070 year on year. For summer 2026, just 62,550 seats are scheduled—all on the Palma route.

In a statement to Aviation Week, DTM says it “very much regrets” Eurowings’ decision to reduce its flight offering by four routes, noting that the airline has been “a reliable and important partner of the airport for many years.” The airport said the reductions affect a limited number of services—around 60,000 passengers annually—and apply only to flights operated during the summer schedule.

“Overall, the flight schedule in Dortmund remains stable and in recent weeks we have already been able to announce several new routes,” the airport adds, citing upcoming Wizz Air services to Olsztyn-Mazury from October and to Nis, Bratislava and Wroclaw from next year.

DTM says that it continues to work with existing and new airline partners to fill the gap left by Eurowings, particularly in southern European markets. “As soon as concrete updates are confirmed, we will provide further information,” the airport adds.

The move will leave Wizz Air with around 90% of DTM’s capacity, based on current schedules. However, on Oct. 15, the airport reported rising traffic, with third-quarter 2025 volumes up 7.5% year on year to nearly 960,000 travelers.

The latest Ryanair and Eurowings network changes come almost eight years after the collapse of Air Berlin, which briefly turned Germany into a battleground for Europe’s LCCs. EasyJet took over parts of Air Berlin’s network at Berlin Tegel, Ryanair opened a base at Frankfurt and Lufthansa grew Eurowings to defend market share. The result was a short-lived surge in low-cost capacity.

However, much of that expansion proved unsustainable. Ryanair closed its Frankfurt base in 2022 and has since trimmed operations at several regional airports, while easyJet has scaled back its Berlin presence and exited all domestic routes. Eurowings, meanwhile, shifted more of its capacity to other European bases.