Skyhub PAD, a German virtual airline based at Paderborn/Lippstadt Airport, will cease operations on the Paderborn–Munich route on 10 June 2026. The decision, announced on 27 May 2026, is attributed to insufficient bookings, high operating costs in Germany and rising fuel prices in the context of the conflict in Iran.
The service, operated under a wet-lease agreement with Danish carrier DAT, launched on 1 September 2025 with up to three daily rotations on weekdays and Sundays. In its first month of operations, Skyhub PAD carried 4,297 passengers on the PAD–MUC route across 148 flights, averaging around 30 passengers per flight. Of these, approximately 3,531 were point-to-point travelers and 766 were transfer passengers connecting via Munich.
Skyhub PAD was conceived as a local initiative to preserve hub connectivity for the Paderborn region after Lufthansa withdrew from the route. The project targeted around 90,000 passengers per year to reach economic viability, a figure benchmarked against the roughly 104,000 passengers Lufthansa carried on the same route in 2024. The announced shutdown underscores the challenges faced by small German regional airports and virtual airline models in sustaining business-focused feeder services to major hubs under deteriorating market conditions.