Summary

  • Ryanair has added 2,000 extra seats for fans going to watch the England vs. Denmark match in Frankfurt during UEFA Euro 2024.
  • Manchester, Bristol, Birmingham, and London Stansted will have extra flights to Frankfurt Hahn Airport (HHN).
  • Several German airports are scheduled experience growth in seats, flights, and ASKs, during the tournament. However, some of that growth might be due to external factors, including airlines adding flights for the peak summer period.

Ryanair has announced that it added extra seats for football fans to see the English national football team play the Danish national football team at the upcoming Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Euro 2024 championship in Frankfurt, Germany.

The 2,000 extra seats were added on flights to Hahn Airport (HHN), which Ryanair and other low-cost carriers in the continent market as Frankfurt-Hahn Airport. The Irish airline said that extra seats will be added on routes connecting Bristol Airport (BRS), Manchester Airport (MAN), Birmingham Airport (BHX), and London Stansted Airport (STN) with HHN.

According to Ryanair, extra flights will depart the four British airports on June 19, leaving Germany on either June 21 or June 22. England’s second group match during the tournament, between England and Denmark, is scheduled to kick off on June 20.

Ryanair boeing 737 landing

Photo: Ryanair

Jade Kirwan, the Head of Comms of Ryanair, remarked that the airline has added over 2,000 extra seats to enable fans to travel to Frankfurt and watch a game that was set to be an unforgettable experience for those attending it in-person.

“We have extra flights from London Stansted, Manchester, Bristol and Birmingham, ensuring that fans can conveniently get to/from Frankfurt on match day, as well as having the opportunity to soak up the pre- and post-game atmosphere on the ground.”

However, UEFA has already sold out all of its tickets to the games during three separate ticket phases, allocating them randomly to fans who had applied for them either in 2023 or 2024. On May 2, the association launched a last-minute sale of 100,000 tickets to various games, with the sale concluding on the same day.

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Marginal differences

At the same time, airlines have added only a few additional seats to Germany, according to data from the aviation analytics company Cirium. The site’s data revealed that in June and July 2022, there were 125,052 flights landing in Germany, amounting to 21.7 million seats during the two-month period in 2022.

Customs Office signs at the airport in Munich, Germany

Photo: Pradeep Thomas Thundiyil | Shutterstock

A year later, the number of flights and seats grew to 132,769 and 23.3 million, respectively. Meanwhile, in June and July 2024, airlines have scheduled 139,597 flights, resulting in 24.7 million seats landing in Germany during the two months.

June 1, 2023 – July 31, 2023

June 1, 2024 – July 31, 2024

Growth

Flights

132,769

139,597

5.1%

Seats

23.3 million

24.7 million

5.9%

Available Seat Kilometers (ASK)

47.8 billion

51.6 billion

7.9%

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Growth outliers

However, some airports in Germany will see double-digit growth in all three or at least one of the aforementioned metrics, including Munich Airport (MUC), Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER), Hamburg Airport (HAM), Hannover Airport (HAJ), HHN, Weeze Airport (NRN), Dresden Airport (DRS), and others.

Flight growth vs June and July 2023

Seat growth vs June and July 2023

ASK growth vs June and July 2023

Munich Airport (MUC)

12.4%

13.8%

16.7%

Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER)

10.3%

11%

6.7%

Hamburg Airport (HAM)

8.6%

9.2%

16.2%

Hannover Airport (HAJ)

13.3%

14.4%

16.1%

Frankfurt-Hahn Airport (HHN)

15.2%

14.2%

11.7%

Dresden Airport (DRS)

11.4%

10.4%

35.5%

Leipzig Airport (LEJ)

6.2%

11.4%

18.4%

Some of the cities that these airports serve correlate with the UEFA Euro 2024 host cities where the tournament’s matches will be played, which include Berlin, Cologne, Dortmund, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Gelsenkirchen, Hamburg, Munich, and Stuttgart.

An aerial view of Munich Airport's terminals and gates.

Photo: Anton_Ivanov | Shutterstock

At the same time, some of that growth could be unrelated to the tournament. For example, MUC’s top ten most growing routes in terms of ASKs include zero intra-Europe routes, with the nearest airport being Hurghada International Airport (HRG), Egypt.

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