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10 WORLD 20.4.2023 ACROSS the board, 2023 is set to be Ryanair's best year yet. A larger fleet combined with huge demand has seen the airline breaking its passenger num- ber record month after month last sum- mer. However, not all markets are creat- ed equal, and one is lagging behind in its recovery, according to the airline group's CEO, Michael O'Leary, backed up by flight schedule data. Germany was Ryanair's 4th biggest market in 2019, though it has since fall- en behind Ireland in 2022 and France in 2023 to the sixth-biggest market for the low-cost airline. While Germany re- mains a major market for the Irish LCC, with over 50,000 flights planned across 2023, it is also one of only two countries currently served by the airline where flight numbers are still below 2019 lev- els. Germany isn't growing for Ryanair According to Ryanair's Micheal O'Leary, Germany is a market that isn't growing for the Irish low-cost carri- er. Speaking to Simple Flying at last month's Airlines For Europe Summit in Brussels, O'Leary commented, "We've added capacity [at Düsseldorf Weeze], we've added capacity at Hahn, and some of the other German Air- ports, but frankly, Germany at the mo- ment is a market that is not particularly aggressive or growing for us. We'll grow much more dramatically in Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, and Poland. But Ger- many is a market in which they have seen the weakest traffic recovery." The numbers back O'Leary up According to flight schedule data pub- lished by Cirium, Ryanair's planned German departures for 2023 fall over 7,000 short of 2019 numbers. e only other country still served by Ryanair that has not reached 2019 levels is Nor- way. Norway is Ryanair's 27th of 36 coun- tries served and is 356 departures short of 2019 figures. Here is how Germany compares to the other countries in the top 10. Ryanair not alone When you dig further into the num- bers and start adding other airlines into the equation, one finds that Ryanair isn't alone in seeing poor recovery in Germany. Of the country's top 20 air- lines, 12 are still operating at lower than 2019 levels in the country. When com- bined, the top 20 airlines are still down some 201,000 flights compared to 2019, with Lufthansa, Eurowings, and easyJet offering vastly reduced schedules com- pared to 2019. In fact, easyJet is the biggest loser of the top 20. It was in the 4th place ahead of Ryanair in 2019. In 2023 it is placed ninth on the list, with around 43,600 of its 2019 flights still missing, equating to a drop of 74.13%. Interestingly the largest airline that has seen positive growth in Germany from 2019 to 2023 is rival airline Wizz Air which has 8.13% more flights. Of the top 20 airlines, Coredon has seen the largest growth over the four-year period, an increase of 68.80. Germany is also the biggest loser in Europe When you look at Germany's opera- tions as a whole compared to its Euro- pean neighbors, the situation persists. Current schedule data shows that there will be 720,000 odd departures from Germany in 2023. is is a difference of roughly -247,000 flights from 2019 or a 25.52% drop. e United Kingdom has the second largest deficit between 2019 and 2023 figures, with -118,000 flights planned in 2023, equating to a 10.86% drop. While Germany has seen the biggest fall in passenger numbers from 2019 to 2023, it is not the only country on the European continent to see its numbers not returning to pre-COVID levels. According to current flight schedules, Cirium data shows that 30 nations will see a smaller number of flights this year. is compares to just ten expecting to see an increase. O'Leary still sees hope in Germany While Germany has seen Ryanair's weakest traffic recovery by country, O'Leary has hope that this won't persist. He told Simple Flying that the airline has a 5-year agreement with Frankfurt Airport on pricing. is was reportedly contingent on the delivery of Terminal 3. When COV- ID-19 delayed the terminal, Ryanair wanted a two-year extension to the deal, with O'Leary commenting,"[Frankfurt Airport] came under intolerable pres- sure from Lufthansa, saying "We can't do that, bla bla bla"." Looking forward to the future, O'Leary is confident that more German airports will want to do pricing deals with Rya- nair, adding, "I think that German airports will realize in a year or two that having a national champion like Lufthansa that overcharges everybody six, seven, eight hundred euros is not necessarily the way forward, and there'll be more scope for us to do deals with airports and to grow, but it will take a year or two." The biggest loser: Germany is Ryanair's only major unrecovered market Ryanair is currently predicted to be 7,156 flights short of its 2019 German flight schedule

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