Münster/Osnabrück targets key unserved route opportunities to Malaga, Vienna and Istanbul

Münster/Osnabrück International Airport (FMO) is located in the northwest of Germany between the cities of Münster and Osnabrück. The airport has an attractive unique catchment area with 3.3 million inhabitants, extending to 9 million people within a 90-minute drive, covering the north-western part of Germany as well as the eastern part of the Netherlands.

FMO is one of the few airports in Germany that is open 24/7/365 without night curfew, and without slot restrictions, giving airlines full operational flexibility which is clearly a USP in Germany.

In 2021, 362,000 passengers travelled through the airport – an increase of 62% year-on-year. Meanwhile, compared with 2019, the airport’s passenger figures recovered slightly ahead of the German average.

This year marks FMO’s 50th anniversary and is looking promising with new routes and increased frequencies. Key developments include:

• Corendon Airlines will start a new route to Faro in May 2022.
• Lufthansa plans to increase frequencies in order to restore its high-frequency services to its Frankfurt and Munich hubs.
• AlbaStar, Corendon Airlines, Eurowings and Ryanair will offer an improved schedule to Palma de Mallorca.
• SunExpress has already increased frequencies to Antalya in the short-term for April and May due to strong demand.
• Heraklion is another growing market: Aegean Airlines (operating for TUI) as a new operator will strengthen the flight offer.

With more than 20 destinations, the majority of the route network has been restored in comparison to pre-COVID, but FMO is eager to further expand. Key route opportunities are:

• Leisure: Spain (especially mainland), Italy, Croatia, Greece and Cyprus are unserved or underserved, as well as being frequently requested destination countries. Malaga is among the most requested unserved routes.
• City: Vienna is a key unserved route – the route with the largest number of indirect passengers.
• VFR: Access to new destinations in Turkey. FMO is currently connected to six destinations in Turkey (Antalya, Izmir, Ankara, Kayseri, Adana and Zonguldak) meeting strong leisure and VFR demand, butit is surprising that Istanbul is still unserved. There is also a substantial and increasing community from Central and Eastern European countries living in FMO’s catchment area: key route opportunities are related to Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and Serbia.