Wednesday, 3 September 2025, 11:16
The Irish airline Ryanair has carried out its threat and will scrap one million seats on flights this coming winter season by cancelling a total of 36 direct connections with regional Spain and the Canary Islands airports. The company blames the “excessive” fees and the lack of competitiveness in these infrastructures that it attributes to the airport operator Aena. All this means that two million seats per year will be diverted to Italy, Morocco, Croatia and Albania. “Ryanair remains committed to Spain, but we cannot justify continued investment in airports whose growth is blocked by excessive and uncompetitive fees,” said the CEO of the Irish company, Eddie Wilson, this Wednesday.
These cuts mean a reduction in air traffic at secondary airports – those with less than three million passengers – of 41% (600,000 seats). They will affect Santiago, where it is closing its two-plane base – which will mean the loss of an investment of 200 million dollars ; Vigo, where it is suspending all flights from 1 January; Zaragoza (-45% capacity), Santander (-38%), Asturias (-16%) and Vitoria (-2%).
In addition, Ryanair will continue not to operate at Valladolid and Jerez airports during the winter. The low cost airline will also reduce its seat offer in the Canary Islands by 10% (400,000 seats) with a cancellation of 36 connections with the Spanish mainland and the suspension of all flights to Tenerife North from 1 October.
Abandonment of regional airports
Ryanair will take this 6.5% increase in Aenea charges by 2026, to 11.03 euros per passenger to the National Commission for Markets and Competition (CNMC). For the company, it said the airport operator has no interest in developing traffic at regional airports and only wants to focus on obtaining “record profits from the main Spanish airports”.
In his opinion, Aena and the Spanish government, its majority shareholder, “have failed the Spanish regions, whose airports are almost 70% empty. “By contrast, other airports and countries such as Italy, Morocco, Croatia, Albania, Hungary, Sweden, etc., are reducing access costs (especially at regional airports) to boost traffic, tourism and employment, which makes Spanish regions hopelessly uncompetitive,” Wilson explained.
According to Ryanair, the company contributes more than 28 billion euros to Spain’s GDP, invests more than 10 billion euros in its Spanish operations and employs more than 10,000 pilots, cabin crew and engineers. “Ryanair remains committed to growth in the Spanish regions, but this growth is blocked by Aena’s excessive fees and its refusal to work with airlines to support regional airports with available capacity,” Wilson said.
