Germany’s declining international air connectivity is contributing to the country’s reduced appeal to foreign investors, the Bundesverband der Deutschen Fluggesellschaften (BDF) argues. EY recorded 548 announced foreign-company investment projects in Germany in 2025, 10% fewer than in 2024 and the lowest number since 2009. German airports have also lost almost 300 directly served destinations since 2019, while annual flight frequencies on remaining routes have fallen by about 250,000, according to the association.
BDF managing director Michael Engel described the loss of connectivity as a multi-year trend. For companies with sites and customers in several countries, direct and fast international links can influence location decisions, the association maintains.
The BDF is calling for lower government-imposed aviation location costs and measures to improve airlines’ competitive conditions. It did not quantify how many investment projects may have been affected by reduced air services.
EY’s figures cover foreign-company projects involving new sites and jobs, excluding acquisitions and purely financial investments. The decline therefore does not represent total foreign investment flows. EY also identified high tax and labour costs, expensive energy, bureaucracy and weak economic prospects as factors weighing on Germany’s investment attractiveness. The data establish parallel declines in connectivity and announced projects, but do not prove that cancelled or reduced air links directly caused specific investments to be abandoned.