How Airlines Have Adapted Their Schedules For UEFA Euro 2024

On June 14, 2024, the 2024 UEFA European Football Championship, known as UEFA Euro 2024, will kick off, starting off one of the more intense sporting summers in Europe, with the tournament being subsequently followed by the Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris, France.

Nevertheless, the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) announced Germany as the host country on September 27, 2018, which meant that between June 14 and July 14, 2024, Germany will welcome millions of football fans to ten host cities.

The list of hosting cities includes Berlin, Cologne, Dortmund, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Gelsenkirchen, Hamburg, Leipzig, Munich, and Stuttgart. Almost all ten have major or smaller airports serving these cities, except Gelsenkirchen, whose closest airport is Dusseldorf Airport (DUS). The map below displays the German airports serving the host cities, as well as alternative, low-cost airports typically served by the continent’s no-frills airlines, such as Frankfurt Hahn Airport (HHN) or Weeze Airport (NRN). The map also includes airports that will serve as some teams’ base camps, such as Braunschweig Wolfsburg Airport (BWE), Erfurt Weimar Airport (ERF), and others.

According to data from the Association of German Airports (Arbeitsgemeinschaft Deutscher Verkehrsflughäfen e.V., ADV), the 22 airports shown on the map had collectively welcomed 56.95 million scheduled passengers from January to April 2024, an 11.9% increase year-on-year (YoY). 19 out of the 22 airports had more than 100,000 passengers during the four-month period.

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Preparing for up to 2 million passengers

On May 15, the ADV said that, together with the tournament’s hosts, the association wants to help visiting football – also known as soccer – fans experience a smooth journey to watch the games. As such, the association said that it was expecting around 2 million passengers during the month when the UEFA Euro 2024 will be played, with over 500 additional flights being coordinated at the country’s airports.

“In particular, the airports at the ten host cities have prepared intensively for EURO 2024. These are Berlin, Dortmund, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Cologne/Bonn, Leipzig/Halle, Munich, Münster/Osnabrück and Stuttgart. Six other airports will serve as “Team Base Camp Airports” for EURO 2024: Braunschweig/Wolfsburg, Erfurt, Friedrichshafen, Hanover, Paderborn, and Nuremberg.”

Photo: Lufthansa

The association has also pointed out that 21 out of 24 participating teams will arrive in the country by aircraft, with the first national football team arriving on German soil being Albania, which should arrive at Dortmund Airport (DTM) on June 8.

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Special flights from airlines

Some airlines have directly announced that they would launch special flights or add additional seats on their networks in direct response to the UEFA Euro 2024. For example, Ryanair announced that it would add an additional 2,000 seats from the United Kingdom to HHN. The four British airports are Bristol Airport (BRS), Manchester Airport (MAN), Birmingham Airport (BHX), and London Stansted Airport (STN).

Photo: Vladimir Zhupanenko | Shutterstock

Meanwhile, Georgian Airways, the flag carrier of Georgia, announced direct flights from Tbilisi International Airport (TBS) to DTM, Hamburg Airport (HAM), and DUS on March 29. These dates directly correlate with the matches being played by the Georgian national football team in the three cities.

On May 20, Irakli Kobakhidze, the Prime Minister of Georgia, announced that the country would subsidize regularly scheduled and chartered flights from TBS and Kutaisi International Airport (KUT) to four German airports, including Cologne Bonn Airport (CGN), according to a report by Georgia-based AGENDA.

Photo: Tupungato | Shutterstock

Meanwhile, Hungary-based Wizz Air said that it would add more flights from Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport (BUD) and Debrecen International Airport (DEB) to Germany. Zsuzsa Trubek, a Communications Manager at Wizz Air, stated that the airline’s flight schedules have been specially adapted to suit football fans traveling to see the Hungarian national football team play in Germany, per a report by Hungary Today.

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However, Germany’s overall connectivity has not grown much in light of the tournament.

Single-digit growth

Data from the aviation analytics company Cirium showed that the 20 German airports, which excludes Essen/Mülheim Airport (ESS) and BWE because they have no scheduled flights during the two months, will grow their flights, seats, and capacity, measured in available seat kilometers (ASK), from June 1 to July 31, 2024, compared to the same two-month period in 2023.

Photo: Tom Boon | Simple Flying

However, when looking at flights that originate in Europe, five airports, including Friedrichshafen Airport (FDH), Karlsruhe/Baden Baden Airport (FKB), DTM, DUS, and CGN, are scheduled to have fewer flights, seats, and ASKs in June and July 2024 compared to the same period a year prior. At the same time, some airports, including Munich Airport (MUC), Berlin Brandenburg (BER), and Hannover Airport (HAJ), are set to have double-digit growth on intra-European routes.

Some of this growth could be fueled by additional leisure travel demand to some of the continent’s most popular tourism destinations, such as Egypt, Turkey, or Spain, meaning that not all airlines are looking to add flights in response to the tournament.

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