Ryanair farewell from Frankfurt: It would be difficult without low-cost airlines

That was it for the time being with the low-cost airline Ryanair at Frankfurt Airport.

“Too expensive” is the Irish message, as is so often the case.

What is meant are the charges that the airport operator has just increased by 4.3 percent.

Ryanair boss Eddie Wilson does not accept that, in the opinion of Fraport AG, this is not so much compared to airports of the same size and with a similarly comfortable infrastructure.

Because his customers don't care about comfort, boutiques and lounges.

She wants to fly cheaply, nothing else.

The fact that Ryanair reacts quickly and mercilessly to every price increase, even if it is moderate, must have been clear to the Fraport management from the start.

The airline has often threatened and implemented such consequences.

However, it was never a matter close to the heart of the Frankfurters to greet the stingy Irish and their like-minded clientele.

Because with such passengers you do not increase the turnover in retail, airport catering and parking garages, which is so important for Fraport.

If you want to travel as cheaply as possible, you don't destroy the price advantage with extensive shopping, the use of expensive parking spaces or even just a sandwich at the prices of upscale restaurants.

Corona has changed the conditions

On the other hand, the Fraport management had to realize long before Ryanair came in 2017 that it is no longer only those customers who want to fly low-cost who, if necessary, spend the night on the floor of an airport hall in order to get cheap tickets.

Business people are now increasingly among them.

And the airport operator could not ignore this part of the passengers, who are at the core of the Fraport target group.

In addition, they wanted to keep all options open to be able to utilize the increased capacity with the third terminal.

With the corona pandemic, however, the conditions have changed, because many business things are regulated online, and Lufthansa also expects that the proportion of business customers will be lower after the pandemic than before.

The loss for Fraport in view of a Ryanair market share in Frankfurt of around three percent does not seem dramatic at first.

But in the near future Fraport will be dependent on all groups of passengers, from whatever airline, in order to be able to operate the resulting capacities profitably.

This will hardly work without low cost.

The fact that the opposition in the Hessian state parliament is now complaining about a failure of the government should be mentioned briefly for the sake of order.

This political exchange of blows is not a source of knowledge.