Aviation

Furthermore, the energy-intensive ceramics industry is greatly affected by the rising gas prices which will also lead to competitive disadvantages.

Furthermore, the carbon pricing scheme introduced in Germany for small plants is distorting competition, particularly in the fine ceramics industry as these are classified as operators of small plants not covered by the EU ETS. Policymakers have thus created substantial competitive disadvantages for German foundries.

Contact: Jenny Tanner / Phone: +49 9287 808 25 / Mail: tanner@keramverband.de

Aviation

In the first quarter 2022, air travel was still hampered by the Covid pandemic. German airports recorded passenger demand of around 22 million passengers in the first three months of the year. That was more than three times as many as in the first quarter 2021 but still less than half the passenger numbers before the pandemic in 2019 (43 percent). The impact of the Ukraine war is marginal. The proportion of passengers between Germany and Ukraine, Russia and Belarus only amounted to 2.5 percent of all passengers within and to or from Germany even before the crisis.

Demand for air travel in Europe and in Germany is bouncing back overall. However, compared to a selection of the largest aviation markets in Europe and the neighbouring countries of Germany (Norway, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Greece, Poland, the United Kingdom, Turkey), Germany was ranked 15th with a recovery rate of 78 percent. Only Sweden was lower, with a recovery rate of 76 percent. In many other countries the crisis in demand induced by the pandemic is over, with Greece at 105 percent, Portugal 99 percent, Turkey 97 percent, Spain 93 percent, the Netherlands 91 percent and Italy at 90 percent. Demand in Germany is not returning with much force, particularly in domestic air travel. While domestic air travel has recovered in the other large European markets (Italy at 103 percent of 2019, France 88 percent and Spain 97 percent), in Germany only 56 percent of domestic flights will be available over summer 2022.

Market participants have reacted differently. While German airlines have reported a recovery of 80 percent of flights overall, taking them to seven percentage points below the development across Europe excluding Germany (EMU, UK, Switzerland), many international airlines favour the recovery and growth levels in other European markets. International point-to-point companies in Europe excluding Germany grew by ten percent compared to 2019, while in Germany the number of flights was at 37 percent below pre-pandemic levels. The same is true, though less pronounced, in the case of the large groups AFKL, IAG and particularly the U.S. airlines. The international tourist airlines are growing more strongly in Germany than in the rest of Europe.

There are several reasons for this development. Germany kept the measures imposed to stop the spread of Covid in place for a long time and the German population has been much more critical about the termination of these measures than the general public in comparable markets. Business travel, which was thought to be in general demise during the pandemic, is also recovering although not as strongly as private travel. As business travel is an important section of the German market, this has