Ryanair has decided to terminate 12 routes and 800,000 seats from its 2025 summer schedule to Spain, a move that will come as a blow to tourists hoping to explore the top European country later this year.
The budget airline will cease operations at two airports completely and reduce them at another five.
The company’s CEO, Eddie Wilson, has criticised airport authority Aena’s measures as being “ineffective” and not supporting the Government’s objectives of achieving more traffic at Spain’s regional airports.
Aena’s “excessive” charges and lack of “viable” incentives are damaging regional airports, limiting their growth and wasting areas of airport capacity, Wilson said at a press conference on Thursday (January 16), according to the Majorca Daily Bulletin.
“These airports have the necessary infrastructure and security, what they don’t have is the right pricing infrastructure,” he added.
As a result, Ryanair has decided to cease operations at Jerez (Cadiz) and Valladolid, will withdraw an aircraft based at Santiago de Compostela, and reduce traffic at Vigo (-61%), Santiago (-28%), Zaragoza (-20%), Asturias (-11%), and Santander (-5%) in what it considers a “completely avoidable” loss.
Overall, the airline is set to reduce its capacity by 18% in Spain during the upcoming season.
Michael O’Leary’s company has instead moved its traffic to other places including Sweden, Croatia, Hungary and Morocco, as they believe these are more competitive than Aena’s regional airports.
A spokesperson for Aena told Express.co.uk: “The arguments put forward today by the Irish airline Ryanair to justify its readjustment of routes in Spanish airports is an exact duplicate of its ongoing commercial, communication and business policy in all European countries.
“The average charge to be paid by airlines to Aena for airport services as of 1st March this year will remain frozen at €10.35 [£8.73] per passenger. This charge is among the lowest in Europe.
“Ryanair’s constant demands, devoid of any courtesy, with regard to Aena’s airport fees, may be found to be in breach of Act 18/2014 and therefore illegal. Additionally they could even be considered by the European Union as state aid.
“In short, Aena regrets that Ryanair is resorting to spurious arguments that do not match the reality of airport charges in Spain, in order to mislead citizens and blatantly put pressure on national and regional public institutions.”
They argue that according to new data in Aena’s systems and the figures offered by the airline, its schedule for the summer of 2025 in Spain implies more seats are available than in 2024.
At the large airports and tourist hubs where the airline has announced that it will continue to grow, the charge to be paid by Ryanair per passenger will be substantially higher than that of regional airports, the statement has warned.
Ryanair also announced that it intends to phase out paper boarding passes and check-in desks entirely by May 2025 – the first airline in the world to go entirely paperless.
Instead, travellers must present a digital PDF version of their boarding pass via the app.
“I’m one of the last remaining people still showing up with my piece of paper,” O’Leary said at a press conference in October. “But it works so well. [The app] tells you your gate and if there is a delay.”
At present, passengers are charged £55 if they forget to check in online before getting to the airport. But, by going paperless, passengers will never have to pay for their tickets to be printed at the airport again.
“So I think it will be a smoother, easier journey for everybody,” O’Leary added.
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