Travel tax prompts Ryanair to cut flights from Frankfurt Hahn

Ryanair is to cut by 30% the number of flights it operates from Germany's Frankfurt Hahn airport blaming an €8 travel tax imposed by the Berlin government.

The move will come into effect from summer next year, the airline said, with the number of aircraft based at the facility down to eight from 11 and the number of flights for the summer 2011 schedule down from over 500 to less than 400.

The airline said up to 1,000 people would lose their jobs as a result, with the airport's passenger traffic to decline by 1 million people per year.

"As a direct result of Germany’s new €8 tourist tax Frankfurt Hahn’s traffic will decline by 1m passengers p.a. leading to the loss of 1,000 jobs in Hahn including 150 Ryanair pilots and cabin crew jobs," the airline said in a statement.

"Ryanair will also close nine routes from Frankfurt Hahn to Agadir, Berlin (from 10thJan 2011), Gdansk, Gothenburg, Klagenfurt, Prague, Santiago, Seville and Wroclaw while 15 other routes will suffer reduced frequencies."

“The German Govt’s €8 tourist tax will do significant damage to traffic and tourism in Germany next year," said Ryanair’s Michael Cawley in Frankfurt today.

“nternational experience shows that tourist taxes have caused substantial traffic collapses in both Ireland and the UK this year and we believe that this ill-advised €8 tourist tax will do similar damage to German tourism and jobs."