Ryanair Announces Plans to Invade Lufthansa’s Home Turf

The Irish ultra-low-fare airline will establish a base in the German flag carriers’s main hub at Frankfurt Airport.

Ryanair is taking the fight directly to Lufthansa’s backyard. The Irish no-frills airline is planning to compete with Germany’s largest commercial airline at the company’s most established hub and Germany’s largest airport – Frankfurt Airport (FRA).

“We are pleased to launch a new base at Frankfurt am Main airport from the end of March, our 9th German base and 85th in Europe, with 4 new routes to Alicante, Faro, Malaga and Palma, which will deliver 400,000 customers per annum at Frankfurt am Main airport, as we add another primary airport to our German network,” Ryanair spokesperson David O’Brien said at a press conference announcing the new base. “Our two based aircraft represent an investment of $200 million, which further underlines our commitment to growing traffic, tourism and jobs in the Hessen region. We look forward to working closely with Fraport to deliver industry leading efficiencies and further growth at Germany’s biggest airport.”

The move by Ryanair strikes at the very heart of Lufthansa’s network at its largest hub. Over the years, the German carrier has experimented with different strategies to compete with ultra-low-fare carriers like Ryanair with varying degrees of success. The company owns an ultra-low-fare airline of its own with the Eurowings brand which merged with Germanwings last year. Industry insiders say that while Ryanair has operated in Germany for years, reports of the Irish airline establishing a new base at FRA cannot be welcome news for Lufthansa management.

Lufthansa currently controls more than 75 percent of the passenger traffic at the region’s busiest airport. The introduction of a new Ryanair base will do little to change those numbers, but could allow Ryanair an important, albeit symbolic, foothold in Lufthansa’s most vital hub.

Lufthansa may be bracing for an escalation in direct competition. FRA officials, however, seem to be welcoming the new competition for its largest tenant with open arms.

“We are pleased to have Ryanair, Europe’s leading low-cost airline, in our program at Frankfurt soon,” Frankfurt Airport CEO Stefan Schulte told reporters at the same press conference. “Beginning in the summer schedule 2017, we will be offering passengers in our region another attractive travel option – using the modern Boeing 737-800 aircraft. Thus, we are responding to the strong and growing demand in our region for this aviation segment. Ryanair’s decision to come to FRA underscores the increasing importance of Frankfurt for low-cost traffic. We wish Ryanair ‘Always Happy Landings’ here at Frankfurt.”

[Photo: Frankfurt Airport]