Ryanair is planning to open a hub at Munich airport next year.
London is tipped as one of the first destinations Ryanair will serve from the German city.
However, the London airport served will almost certainly not be Heathrow.
Kenny Jacobs, the Irish carrier's marketing director, said the Munich flights, if approved, will start in winter 2016 or "if possible, even earlier", reports Germany's SuddeutscheZeitung.
Ryanair currently services mainland Europe airports/hubs such as Brussels, Copenhagen, Madrid, Milan Malpensa, Prague and Rome Fiumicino.
Later this month, Amsterdam will be added to that list (see news, June 30) while slots have just been applied for at Paris Charles De Gaulle for summer 2016.
The low-cost airline's new hub strategy is part of its plan to offer more convenient services to woo business travellers and to become a future feeder airline for conventional carriers (see news, September 22).
Currently, Ryanair serves Munich by using Memmingen, which is over 115 kilometres away. It is unclear whether the Memmingen services will remain should the slots at Munich's main airport be granted.
The only budget airline serving London from Munich's main airport is Easyjet, which operates flights to Gatwick, Luton and Stansted.
Both British Airways and Lufthansa operate between Munich and London Heathrow.
Alex McWhirter
