Ryanair Group will close its base at Düsseldorf International Airport (DUS) in Germany as the market becomes increasingly pessimistic about the prospects for summer 2021.
This will have a major impact on Ryanair’s Austrian subsidiary Laudamotion with 150 crew jobs set to disappear along with the seven Airbus A320 that have been based at the airport.
“We are deeply sorry to confirm that Ryanair has today advised that it will close its Düsseldorf services from Oct. 24,” Laudamotion joint CEOs Andreas Gruber and David O´Brian wrote in an internal letter sent to employees Sept. 10. “We have no choice but to issue notices of termination of all our Düsseldorf crews, following notification to the Employment Agency.”
The CEOs put the blame on Düsseldorf Airport and Acciona Handling after they refused to cut their charges. This, along with high Düsseldorf passenger costs and increased German passenger taxes, “will inevitably cause unsustainable losses this winter,” they wrote.
The closure follows the cessation of all flights from Laudamotion’s Stuttgart base (STR) on Sept. 30, which means that the carrier will no longer have any bases in Germany.
Aviation Daily understands that the Stuttgart base operated only three days per week—from Friday to Sunday—during the summer season.
Laudamotion will continue to operate bases in Palma de Mallorca (PMI), Spain (PMI) and Vienna (VIE).
Laudamotion itself will be closed and its assets transferred to a new Maltese AOC called Lauda Europe. The headquarters will move from Vienna to Malta.
“We will subsequently reduce our Austrian AOC operation, close it and return [the AOC to the Austrian authorities]. We already applied for a Maltese AOC and plan to start operations from November,” Laudamotion CEO Andreas Gruber told Aviation Daily recently.
Lauda Europe Ltd. will remain as a wet-lease operator for Ryanair Group airlines, as well for other airlines in the ACMI (aircraft, crew, maintenance and insurance) business.
Laudamotion has lost €300 million ($355 million) in the two years since its March 2018 launch.
Related Content
