Ryanair Group CEO Michael O'Leary has indicated that he could reduce another million seats on flights to Spain next summer if Spanish airport operator Aena does not lower airport charges following the announced 6.5% increase.
In an interview with the Financial Times following the Irish low-cost airline's annual meeting, O'Leary said he plans to return to Madrid in two weeks' time and will likely announce this new cut. ‘If prices in regional Spain are too high, I'll fly somewhere else,’ added the Ryanair executive, who insisted that if the Spanish government is unable to convince Aena to reverse this fee increase, ‘I have no interest in serving them.’
Ryanair, which accuses Aena of monopoly, announced this month a cut of one million seats in Spain for the winter season. This reduction in seat availability will mean the loss of more than one million seats, which, added to the 800,000 that Ryanair has eliminated in the summer season, brings the total cut to 2 million for 2025 as a whole. This figure could be higher if the cut being considered for flights to Spain next summer goes ahead.
The European Commissioner for Transport, Apostolos Tzitzikostas, is scheduled to meet with Ryanair's CEO today a meeting that has come as a ‘surprise’ to the Spanish Minister of Consumer Affairs, Pablo Bustinduy, who regrets that this meeting is taking place with the Ryanair “magnate” rather than with the Spanish government after the airline's ‘blackmail’ over Aena's fees.