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STRIKES

Are the German rail strikes going to end soon?

Passengers are hopeful that the frequent disruptions to rail services could soon be at an end after Germany's state-owned rail operator returned to the negotiation table with the train drivers' union.

Published: 10 September 2021 11:02 CEST
Are the German rail strikes going to end soon?
A man sits on an otherwise deserted platform in Freiburg during strikes in early September. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Philipp von Ditfurth

According to reports from DPA, Deutsche Bahn plans to make a “new and improved” offer to the GDL train drivers’ union ahead of this weekend in an attempt to see off renewed strike plans on Monday. 

READ ALSO: Trains return to normal across Germany – but more strikes loom

The GDL had previously said it was planning to start organising its next walk-out from September 13th – less than a week after its previous six-day strike action – if the rail operator did not come back with a “negotiable offer” by that date.

The contents of the planned offer have not yet been disclosed to the media, but a Deutsche Bahn spokeswoman said that the company was intensively examining where both sides could come closer together.

“In the interest of our customers, we must now urgently reach an agreement,” she told travel news site FVW. 

Ongoing wage dispute

So far in August and September, there have been three rail strikes organised by the GDL in an attempt to force Deutsche Bahn’s hand in a fierce battle over wages.

Having suffering record losses in the wake of the Covid pandemic, the rail operator wants to introduce a 3.2 pay increase for its staff in increments over three years – starting with a pay freeze in 2021. It has also promised that nobody will be laid off as a result of the company’s post-pandemic losses.

READ ALSO: EXPLAINED: How the German rail strikes could affect you

The GDL, meanwhile, is insistent that employees should be offered a wage increase of 3.2 percent over the next 28 months. In addition, the union is demanding a €600 ‘Covid bonus’ for continuing to work throughout the pandemic.

Ahead of the previous strike action, Deutsche Bahn said it was open to considering some kind of Covid bonus for employees.

But GDL chairman Claus Weselsky has accused the rail operator of being inflexible.


GDL chief Claus Weselsky has accused Deutsche Bahn of “playing for time”. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Paul Zinken

“We’ve given Deutsche Bahn time to think things over after the last strike, but it seems to me that the railway board is taking a bit long to think things over,” Weselsky said. He added that Deutsche Bahn was apparently playing for time, but warned that this could no longer be an option.

Weselsky has previously rejected offers from Deutsche Bahn that are not extended to all employees, and has said that all of the GDL’s demands must be met for the intermittent strikes to come to an end.

Majority of Germans disagree with the strikes

According to a YouGov survey on behalf of DPA, 53 percent of Germans had no sympathy with GDL’s most recent strike. In contrast, just over a third (36 percent) said they understood the union’s motives.

The strikes during the holiday season affected not only commuters but also holidaymakers. Moreover, the third strike in passenger transport also extended over the weekend.

According to the survey, around one in seven people in Germany were affected by the stoppages, which wreaked havoc on rail transport in all major cities and regions across the country.

READ ALSO: How to navigate the Deutsche Bahn train strikes in your region of Germany

Will the strikes be called off?

This all depends on the substance of the offer that Deutsche Bahn plans to make.

The GDL has assumed an unbending stance over the months-long dispute, and at this point it seems unlikely that anything other than an almost complete acceptance of their demands will get the union to call off the strikes. 

In a press statement issued on Thursday, Weselsky said that the question of whether the union should strike “has never been questioned by our members who are ready to fight”, adding that their right to strike had also been affirmed by the courts. 

READ ALSO: German rail chaos continues after two failed attempts to prevent strikes

“The alternatives are therefore on the table and DB has the choice of where to go,” he said. However, it should not wait too long to make its decision. We have been clear about the time frame.”

Member comments

    1. The first thing we learned when moving here is not to depend on the bus or the trains. They are very unreliable and strike at the drop of a hat. We pay more for our car, but we’ll get there and when we planned on getting there.

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For members

TRAVEL NEWS

‘Germany lacks a sensible airline policy’: Is budget air travel on the decline?

Budget airlines complain that an upcoming tax hike is one of many accumulating costs that are pushing ticket prices up. The Local takes a look at trends in German aviation and asks, are the days of cheap flights coming to an end?

Published: 25 April 2024 15:16 CEST
'Germany lacks a sensible airline policy': Is budget air travel on the decline?

April is a big month for budget airline anniversaries in the Bundesrepublik: Ryanair first landed at Frankfurt’s Hahn Airport 25 years ago in April 1999, and EasyJet is also celebrating its 20th anniversary in Berlin.

Both airlines have expanded greatly since stepping into the German market. Ryanair, which had served around 5 million passengers in 1999, now has 184 million guests annually and has grown into Europe’s largest flight provider. In the same time, EasyJet ramped up its service in Berlin, bringing more than 84 million passengers to and from the capital city.

All of which is to say that the beginning of the 21st century was a good time to be in the budget airline business, at least up until the beginning of the Covid pandemic.

But more recently the industry has contracted in Germany while it continues to grow elsewhere in Europe. 

According to the latest flight schedule analysis by the German aviation industry association (BDL), direct airlines are expanding their flight schedules in Europe at a level that hasn’t been seen since the Covid pandemic.

In the next six months, Ryanair will offer 17 percent more seats on the continent than in the same period of the pre-pandemic year 2019. In Germany, on the other hand, which is weakening overall, they only have 78 percent of the previous supply – a decline of 22 percent.

For its part, EasyJet had reduced its presence at the Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER) from 18 to 11 aircraft for the 2023 winter flight schedule. However, the company points out that they are expanding their capacity at BER this summer.

EasyJet told The Local: “We have increased our capacity at BER with 200,000 seats for summer 2024…[including] five new routes this summer to Antalya, Izmir, Birmingham, Toulouse and Salerno.”

READ ALSO: What intercontinental flights can I get from smaller German airports?

Budget airlines are looking for bluer skies

Both Ryanair and EasyJet suggest that fees and operating costs at German airports have gotten too high.

“Berlin is among the most expensive airports we operate from,” EasyJet told The Local, adding, “Airport costs represent about 20 percent of EasyJet’s operating costs and are the second largest cost after fuel.”

The company suggests that these costs make up a large proportion of passenger ticket prices for short haul trips, and therefore high airport fees are limiting its ability to stimulate demand.

Representatives from Ryanair have made statements along similar lines. “The German aviation market is broken, and the government lacks a sensible airline policy,” Ryanair marketing chief Dara Brady said at a recent anniversary ceremony, according to the German Press Agency (DPA).

In particular, both airlines are not happy about a passenger tax hike which is coming into effect on May 1st. The German aviation tax (Luftverkehrsabgabe) will increase by about 20 percent, and will add a cost of at least €15.53 to one-way European flights, which will be reflected in higher ticket prices for customers.

READ ALSO: Everything that changes in Germany in May 2024

EasyJet told The Local that it is “disappointed with the increase of the passenger tax”, and that the “cost increase will result in higher fares for consumers and damage Germany’s connectivity”.

In addition to passenger taxes, there are also handling costs, take-off and landing fees, as well as fees for security checks on the ground and air traffic control. These costs vary between airports, and directly impact airlines’ plans to expand or curtail operations in a given location.

For example, when Frankfurt Main Airport offered temporary discounts on take-off and landing fees in 2017, Ryanair moved a large part of its Hahn fleet temporarily to the Main.

As operating costs have steadily creeped up in Germany, budget airlines have looked increasingly to other countries for their expansion plans. 

But that doesn’t mean budget airlines can afford to ignore Germany completely. EasyJet maintains that Berlin and Germany are still “a key market for the company”, and last autumn Ryanair suggested that it is aiming to increase its German market share.

Passengers stand near the Ryanair check-in counters. Photo: OSCAR DEL POZO/AFP.

In particular Ryanair aims to expand at Frankfurt’s Hahn, in Weeze on the Lower Rhine, in Memmingen, Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden and Nuremberg.

What should a passenger flight cost?

Despite mounting costs and taxes that airlines complain about, the fact remains that plane tickets are commonly cheaper than equivalent train tickets despite the much higher energy use involved.

That plane tickets can be offered at such low prices is largely explained by the fact that the aviation industry is among the most undertaxed and overly subsidised sectors of the economy.

Airlines aren’t charged VAT or a kerosene tax when they fly between many European destinations today. When the same journey is made by train, rail companies are charged both.

In this sense, Germany’s passenger tax hike on May 1st can be seen as a very small step toward levelling the playing field so that ground transportation options become more competitive.

“In a climate crisis, giving tax exemptions to a super polluting sector is incompatible with the challenges of today,” Jo Dardenne, the aviation director at the clean transport campaign group Transport and Environment, told Euronews following an announcement that France would hike its taxes on flights last year.

Compared to the amount of money pumped into fossil fuel subsidies that airlines rely on, Germany’s passenger tax hike is small change.

According to reporting by Investigate Europe, Germany spends the most to support cheap fossil fuels out of all European member states, with German taxpayers doling out €12.5 billion annually in support for the aviation sector, as of 2020.

READ ALSO: Germany to grant big industry firms subsidies to clean up their act

Still, commercial airline passengers in Germany will certainly not to be happy to see the price of flights rising. Customers can expect to pay between €15.53 and €70.83 more for flights scheduled after May 1st.

With reporting by DPA

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