Budget airlines expect Berlin – Tagesspiegel

12/05/2015 17:55 clock Rainer W. During and Henrik Mortsiefer

Ryanair expands the Schoenefeld, Easyjet makes more money – but Air Berlin further writes deeply in the red.

The Irish budget airline Ryanair blows for full-scale attack on Lufthansa and Air Berlin – and Berlin is intended to be at the center. “Germany is for the next five years our strategic market number one, the driving force for our growth and Berlin the engine,” said Ryanair chief marketing officer Kenny Jacobs on Tuesday the Tagesspiegel. The announcement makes Air Berlin at an inopportune time. The second largest German airline Lufthansa to write after a record loss in the past year deep in the red. In the first quarter the decline was as high at 210 million euros a year ago. Which began the new CEO Stefan Pichler cleanup is progressing slowly. “We are at the beginning of a long journey,” he said on Tuesday. The low cost airline easyJet, which also greatly expands in Schoenefeld, announced meanwhile to have written in the usually weaker first half of the fiscal year in the black.

Back in March Ryanair had announced that in Schönefeld with the start of the winter schedule on 27 of October. five Boeing 737-800 and stationed 18 new routes are opened. As the youngest target the Company announced on Tuesday Tenerife. After Cologne / Bonn Ryanair now of 3 September on – two months earlier than planned. “Lufthansa is a very expensive competitors, German Wings no real low-cost carriers Air Berlin and loses a lot of money, which is good for our growth in Germany,” Jacobs said.

Air Berlin CEO : There is still much to be done a lot

In fact, it falls Air Berlin difficult to get rid of the legacy of too rapid expansion. Although Stefan Pichler reiterated on Tuesday the goal in 2016 surgically back in the black. “I am cautiously optimistic,” he said. Until then, however, must still “much, much to be done”. In the second quarter there will still be no turnaround. Because of the “increased market pressure” will not meet the expectations placed business development. There go after all “nudge nudge for” ahead: In the first three months, the operating loss has shrunk by twelve percent to 160 million euros and sales rose by four percent to 794 million euros. Profits you have the six-day Lufthansa strike and of the Easter holidays. In the coming months, the flight offer from Air Berlin is to be further reduced and more efficient markets. There is throughout the distribution “substantial pent-up demand”, Pichler conceded. “Online, we are five or six years ago.”

Ryanair upgraded meanwhile for the foreseeable price war in the domestic German racetrack to Cologne / Bonn. “Our average fare is only a third of what German Wings demands,” said marketing director Jacobs. Until Thursday there will be flights in advance for 9.99 euros. It is considered the Lufthansa subsidiary to make on the way to Stuttgart competition.

The budget airline Ryanair is committed to integrity

Gone are the days when Ryanair with plans for standing passengers or the introduction of a toilet fee negative headlines made. Recently, the low cost airlines endeavor to respectability. Increasingly controls to the major airports instead of remote provincial airports, allows the taking along two pieces of hand baggage and has special programs for families and business launched.

Currently, Ryanair offers over 180 routes from 13 airports in Germany. In the short- and medium-haul one lies with a market share of four percent in third place behind Lufthansa (38 percent) and Air Berlin (15 percent) and ahead of Condor and Easyjet (three percent). In Berlin, where the number of passengers increased in the end of March last year by 40 percent to 805,000, there will be 2.6 million in the current fiscal year. By 2020, Ryanair will overtake Air Berlin in Germany in the short-haul segment and carry with a market share of 15 to 20 percent to at least 15 German airports at least 25 million passengers, thus Jacobs. Around six million passengers will then start in Berlin and land.

Also, to go with the plans of Ryanair, in four to six years on the long haul, Schönefeld plays a role. One could imagine to drive from Berlin and Cologne / Bonn destinations on the US East Coast, said the head of marketing. The delayed opening of the new airport BER will not slow down the expansion in Berlin.

The competitor Easyjet has thanks to lower fuel costs, positive currency effects and good bookings for ski season in the six months to the end of March pre-tax profit of seven million pounds (9.75 million euros).