Ryanair, Europe’s No 1 airline, today (13 Mar) called on the German Government to take immediate action to prevent further disruption at Berlin’s Schonefeld and Tegel airports, after strikes by ground handling unions forced the cancellation of hundreds of flights for a second day.

Ryanair regrets that it has been forced to cancel 76 flights today to/from Berlin, with further cancellations possible and delays likely due to unwarranted strike action by Verdi handling unions. All customers due to travel to/from Berlin on Monday are advised to check the status of their flight on the Ryanair.com website before travelling to the airport.

Ryanair urged the German Government to intervene and prevent its capital city airports from being shut down by tiny numbers of ground handling unions, and called on all Berlin citizens to sign the “Berlin Braucht Tegel” petition to ensure Berlin retains the airport capacity it so badly needs.

Tegel is due to close 6 months after the new Brandenburg Airport opens, which has been further delayed until at least 2018. However, Brandenburg will have capacity of only 27m passengers and with almost 33m passengers travelling through Schoenefeld and Tegel airports in 2016, Berlin will be left chronically short of airport capacity.

Ryanair’s Kenny Jacobs said:

“It’s unacceptable that a handful of ground handling unions can close the airports of Germany’s capital city for a second day, forcing the cancellation of hundreds of flights, and disrupting the travel plans of thousands of customers. We call on the German Government to intervene and prevent further disruption to Berlin, its airports, airlines, customers and visitors.

This is another prime example of why Berlin needs to enhance its airport capacity and why the plans to shut Tegel airport upon the opening of the new Brandenburg airport must been shelved. As one of Europe’s most visited cities, Berlin needs more than one airport and it’s already lagging behind other European capitals such as London or Paris, who each have a number of competing airports and capacity of 130m and 110m respectively. It will continue to be left behind as the delayed Brandenburg facility will have a capacity of just 27m, less than Dublin Airport (35m), where the population is a third of Berlin’s. We urge all Berliners to sign the petition and vote to keep Tegel open.”

Further flight info:https://www.ryanair.com/ie/en/useful-info/help-centre/travel-updates/ground-handling-strike-berlin-schonefeld0