German airports slow to get back into gear – or are they?

The German airports association, ADV, one of the most proficient in Europe at publishing and analysing statistics, has identified a worrying trend. It observes that recovery from COVID-19 is slower in Germany than in most other European countries as 2023 enters its last quarter.

Ralph Beisel, the general manager of ADV, commented: "Germany as an airport location is becoming increasingly unattractive in the European and international competition for new routes for international airlines. The recovery in air traffic is taking place under conditions of further intensified international competition. The high national location costs are preventing a full recovery of the European market because European airlines are withdrawing from Germany."

That observation could be challenged, based on the scant comparable data that is yet available for that period.

But it remains the case that: with the economic recovery in the business starting to wane now, and while airfares remain high, along with operational costs (especially in Germany), and both Germany and the wider European region are constrained by environmental measures that don't exist to the same degree on other continents - it isn't going to be a case of Germany trying to level up to the rest of Europe in that recovery; more a case of the rest of Europe being dragged down to Germany's level.