Germany’s Nuremberg Sees 25 New Routes This Summer

The second-largest city in the German state of Bavaria, Nuremberg is Germany’s ninth-busiest airport this summer. It has almost 3.4 million seats for sale, up by 2.2% over summer 2019, according to OAG.

Nuremberg has bucked the trend in the country, which is the slowest major European nation to recover from the pandemic. While it has welcomed Aegean, Air Serbia, GP Aviation, TUS Airways, and more, Ryanair’s many new routes – party because of reopening its Nuremberg base – mainly explain the rise.

25 new routes this summer

Ryanair is Nuremberg’s leading carrier, with over one million seats for sale this summer. It has a third of the airport’s capacity, twice as much as number-two, the Corendon Airlines Group (comprising Corendon Airlines and Corendon Airlines Europe).

ULCC Ryanair has added 13 of the 25 new routes, where ‘new’ here means not operating in the past two decades. Not included is Condor to Palma, last regularly served in 2007, which uses B757-300s and ex-Etihad A330-200s. Nor Corendon Airlines to Bodrum, last served in 2019.

With a big emphasis on leisure and visiting friends and relatives markets, the new additions are:

1. Air Serbia: Belgrade, begins June 6th, 2x weekly
2. Aegean: Athens, begins July 5th, 2x weekly
3. British Airways: Heathrow, started March 27th, up to 1x daily this summer
4. Corendon Airlines: Kayseri, begins July 17th, 1x weekly
5. Corendon Airlines Europe: Rhodes, up to 2x weekly
6. Corendon Airlines Europe: Corfu, May 6th, 2x weekly
7. Eurowings: Priština, April 10th, 2x weekly
8. GP Aviation: Priština, April 27th, 2x weekly
9. Ryanair: Banja Luka, March 31st, 2x weekly
10. Ryanair: Chania, begins June 4th, 2x weekly
11. Ryanair: Dublin, March 30th, 4x weekly
12. Ryanair: Faro, April 1st, 2x weekly
13. Ryanair: Funchal, March 29th, 2x weekly
14. Ryanair: Girona, March 30th, 4x weekly
15. Ryanair: Ibiza, begins June 7th, 1x weekly
16. Ryanair: Lamezia Terme, March 29th, 2x weekly
17. Ryanair: Ponta Delgada, April 2nd, 1x weekly
18. Ryanair: Sofia, April 1st, 2x weekly
19. Ryanair: Tallinn, April 1st, 2x weekly
20. Ryanair: Valencia, March 31st, 2x weekly
21. Ryanair: Venice Marco Polo, March 29th, 3x weekly
22. Turkish Airlines: Adana, July 13th, 1x weekly
23. Turkish Airlines: Kayseri, begins July 31st, 1x weekly
24. TUS Airways: Paphos, starts July 16th, 1x weekly
25. Wizz Air: Tirana, begins July 5th, 2x weekly

Photo: via Nuremberg Airport.

Ryanair has relaunched its base

Nuremberg became a Ryanair base in 2016, and OAG showed that it had over one million roundtrip seats in each of the next three years. The base closed in 2020, reportedly “solely” because of a shortage of B737 MAXs.

Of course, bases usually shut down due to underperformance or rising fees and charges. After all, aircraft are movable assets and can move to wherever may be better, greatly influenced by the deal. The changes to Nuremberg’s charges structure have undoubtedly helped get it back.

The base reopened in April this year, with 29 routes operated. Palma, Stansted, Dublin, Girona, Budapest, Palermo, Thessaloniki, Venice, Kraków, and Zadar are its most served.

Palma is Ryanair’s leading destination. Photo: Nuremberg Airport.

BA: the most important addition?

The new routes don’t just involve ULCCs or leisure carriers. The new additions include multiple flag carriers and full-service operators. Most significant is British Airways, with up to a 1x daily service. Arriving at Heathrow mid-evening, its schedule is especially good for point-to-point demand.

In early 2020, anna.aero showed that 193,000 passengers flew Nuremberg-London in 2019, both Ryanair to Stansted and BA to Gatwick. When indirect and leaked passengers are included, London had around 400,000 annual passengers.

Will you be flying to/from Germany this summer? Let us know in the comments.

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