The Irish airline confirmed that 24 routes across nine airports, including Berlin, Hamburg and Memmingen, will be cancelled this winter, resulting in the loss of around 800,000 seats.
Airports in Dortmund, Dresden and Leipzig are also set to remain closed, pushing Ryanair’s capacity in Germany below last year’s levels.
The carrier said the reductions were "entirely avoidable" and criticised Berlin for failing to reduce what it described as some of Europe’s highest airport and access costs.
Dara Brady, Ryanair’s Chief Marketing Officer, said: "Germany’s air travel market is broken and needs an urgent fix. Due to its excessive access costs, Germany has only recovered 88 per cent of its pre-Covid traffic, which is by far the worst recovery of any major European market."
He added: "Until the excessive (and rising) aviation tax, ATC charges, Security Fees and airport costs are addressed by the Government, German air traffic will simply continue to decline whilst other more competitive European countries (with no aviation taxes) benefit from turbocharged Ryanair traffic growth – at Germany’s expense."
Ryanair has repeatedly warned the German government that it would move aircraft and capacity to other EU countries if Berlin failed to act. The airline is calling for the reversal of the aviation tax increase introduced in May 2024 and a reduction in air traffic control fees.
Brady said: "Ryanair once again calls on Transport Minister Patrick Schnieder to take urgent action to fix Germany’s broken air transport system by reducing its high access costs which, combined with Lufthansa’s high-fare monopoly, have forced German citizens and visitors to pay the highest airfares in Europe."
He added that if reforms were introduced, Ryanair could invest an additional US$3 billion by basing 30 more aircraft in Germany, doubling annual passenger numbers to 34 million and creating over 1,000 new jobs across the country.
The airline said it remained committed to the German market but that action was needed to "restore growth and competitiveness" across its airports.
