Ryanair will cancel all flights from Dresden to London from November. The Irish low-cost airline confirmed this on Tuesday on request. First had the “Sächsische Zeitung” reported about it. According to a spokeswoman, the flights that are currently still offered twice a week will be suspended with the winter flight schedule. Ryanair left open whether the connection introduced at the end of October 2019 will be resumed at the start of the summer flight schedule at the end of March 2024.
The airline wants to publish more details about this year’s winter flight schedule in the coming weeks. The “Sächsische Zeitung”, citing data from the Federal Statistical Office, writes that a total of 9,010 passengers flew between Dresden and London Stansted last winter between the beginning of November and the end of March.
Dresden Marketing: Great Britain is one of the “top foreign markets“
Dresden Marketing GmbH, responsible for marketing Dresden as a travel destination and the surrounding area, said: “We very much regret that the direct flight connection Dresden – London will be suspended and hope that it will be available again in the next summer season, as promised.”
Great Britain is one of the “top foreign markets for Dresden and ranks 7th in terms of overnight stays”. In 2022, a total of 31,133 overnight stays were registered from Great Britain, which was 33 percent below the pre-corona year 2019.
“Currently, January to May 2023, we can record 12,833 overnight stays and are thus only one percent below January to May 2019.” How exactly the travelers from abroad arrive is not statistically collected. “The British are likely to travel to Dresden primarily by plane and prefer direct flights or cheap transfer options,” said a spokeswoman for Dresden Marketing.
Saxon airports suffer from corona consequences
A look at the airline’s timetable shows that the Ryanair flights from Dresden to Palma de Mallorca and from Leipzig/Halle to Dublin can only be booked until the end of October and are apparently not offered in winter.
The airports of Dresden and Leipzig/Halle continue to suffer from the consequences of the corona pandemic in terms of passenger numbers. Based on the situation before the pandemic, the central German airports will achieve around 68 percent of the comparable passenger volume in 2019 in the first half of 2023, as the Central German Airport Holding recently announced. “The reasons for this are a still limited supply and the continued low demand in domestic traffic.”
No more domestic flights to Stuttgart and Cologne/Bonn
Domestic flights to Stuttgart or Cologne/Bonn have not yet been resumed in Dresden. The business travel and transfer destination of Zurich is less frequently on the flight schedule than it was until the beginning of 2020. Leipzig/Halle also has to cope with setbacks. The direct flights to Paris Orly and to Chișinău in Moldova were completely canceled this year.