Bremen Airport Supervisory Board Appoints Rainer Schwarz Co-Managing Director for Restructuring as Ryanair Exits Summer 2027 Schedule
Why It MattersThe Ryanair exit shows how a regional airport's dependence on one low-cost carrier exposes it to fee disputes that can cost a fifth of its passengers.
The supervisory board of Flughafen Bremen GmbH has appointed industry manager Rainer Schwarz, 69, as co-managing director alongside current sole managing director Marc Cezanne. Schwarz has a one-year contract and will focus on the company's financial consolidation and restructuring. The airport faces an operating loss that rose to about €13 million in the 2026 financial year.
The decision follows Ryanair's complete withdrawal from Bremen: the airline registered no flights for the summer 2027 schedule after the airport rejected its demands. According to the supervisory board, Ryanair sought discounts and relief of around four million euros, while the airport earns just under three million euros a year from the airline. The office of Bremen's Senator for Economic Affairs, Kristina Vogt, said the airline wanted to use the airport infrastructure almost free of charge. The exit will cost the airport roughly 400,000 passengers per year, about one-fifth of its total passengers. Earlier, after Lufthansa announced it would discontinue feeder flights to its Frankfurt hub, the airport granted fee reductions, and Lufthansa agreed to maintain at least a reduced level of service to its global route network in 2027.
Schwarz previously managed the airports of Nuremberg, Düsseldorf, Berlin-Brandenburg and Rostock-Laage, and most recently headed Münster-Osnabrück Airport until the end of 2025, where he brought Ryanair back and achieved significant passenger growth. He was dismissed at Berlin in 2013 over delays in the opening of BER Airport and later successfully challenged the dismissal in court. At Bremen he is to intensify cost-cutting in day-to-day operations and develop new revenue streams in fees and non-aviation business. Schwarz indicated to regional media that Ryanair could return if economically viable conditions can be established, meaning terms that do not cause the airport to lose money on the flights.
