At the end of last month, Ryanair, Europe’s and Spain’s No. 1 airline, condemned Spanish airport authority Aena’s brazen decision to increase airport charges again by a staggering +6.62% for next year, bringing charges at Spanish airports to their highest level in over a decade, despite record passenger numbers and record monopoly profits for Aena.
The airline said in a statement that the Spanish regulator (CNMC) must immediately reject this excessive, unjustified and damaging increase before the 2025/26 winter schedule is finalised in the coming weeks. “If Aena is allowed to continue increasing its already uncompetitive charges, Ryanair will have no choice but to drastically reduce the number of seats and routes it operates to regional Spain.
And, Irish airline Ryanair has decided cut of almost one million seats at Spanish regional airports in response to the increase in airport charges announced by airport operator Aena a few weeks ago. The airline’s CEO, Eddie Wilson, said in an interview with Europa Press that the company has taken this decision in view of the ‘indifference’ of the Spanish government, which is allowing regional infrastructure to ‘deteriorate and be underused’. ‘We are going to invest where we can get a return,’ he said.
Ryanair is pressuring Spain to reform the management of Aena, which is 51% state-owned, and improve the competitiveness of regional airports, which, in its opinion, are already ‘almost 70% empty due to a failed tariff structure’. The announcement by airport operator Aena that it will increase fees by 6.5% by 2026, to €11.03 per passenger, is, according to Ryanair, ‘unjustified and harmful’, as it represents ‘the highest level in a decade’ despite coinciding with Aena’s highest profits and passenger numbers.
In view of this situation, Ryanair’s CEO has confirmed that next week the company will announce a drastic cut in seats at Spanish regional airports for next winter. The airports affected and the exact number of seats affected will be specified at a press conference to be given by the executive in Madrid next Wednesday.
A few weeks ago, Wilson said that the cut would be ‘quite severe’ and ‘very drastic’. In his opinion, the root of the problem lies in the lack of competitiveness of Spanish regional airports, many of which are 70% underused, or almost empty. ‘If airports are empty, that means the price is wrong. It’s as simple as that,’ he says.