Ryanair looks set to follow through on its threats of cutting 1 million more seats on flights to and from Spain this winter, saying that next week it will name the regional airports affected, amid an ongoing battle with the Spanish airport network.
Low-cost Irish airline Ryanair has confirmed that it will cut flights to Spain by a further million seats this winter.
This follows repeated threats by company executives to reduce flights to smaller regional airports in response to plans from Aena, the Spanish airport network, to increase airline fees.
However, traffic will continue to grow at major Spanish airports such as Madrid, Barcelona, Málaga and those in the Balearic and Canary Islands, the airline stressed.
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Europa Press and Reuters report that the airline will “officially announce next Wednesday a reduction of its capacity to and from regional airports by about one million passenger seats during the coming winter,” citing Eddie Wilson, Ryanair chief executive.
The airports affected and the exact number of seats to be cut will be revealed at the press conference in Madrid. Wilson said previously that the cutbacks would be “quite severe”.
Ryanair argues that the root problem lies in the lack of competitiveness of Spanish regional airports, many of which are 70 percent underused or almost empty.
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“If airports are empty, that means the price is wrong. It’s as simple as that,” Wilson said.
The executive criticised Aena for being “a monopoly that exercises its power by raising prices”, adding that in other parts of Europe, such as Italy and Sweden, airports are lowering fees to be more competitive and attract traffic. “If we, the lowest-cost airline in Europe, can’t make them work, no one can,” Wilson said.
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This comes after long-term tension between the budget airline and Aena. Ryanair’s outspoken CEO, Michael O’Leary, warned previously that he would cut capacity at small hubs for the coming winter season if Aena does not reduce fees. The price hike comes as part of plans to undo a long-standing fee freeze and introduce the biggest increase in a decade.
The low-cost Irish airline has already cut 800,000 seats in Spain and cancelled 12 routes this summer for the same reason, ceasing entirely with operations at smaller airports like Jerez and Valladolid. Routes have also been cut at regional airports such as Santiago de Compostela, Asturias, Cantabria, and Zaragoza. But Ryanair is not cutting its routes throughout the country: the airline added 1.5 million seats to larger and more popular airports such as Madrid, Málaga, and Alicante.
Aena’s new investment plan includes a revised fee structure for the 2027-2031 period, introducing investment worth billions of euros to expand Barcelona El Prat and Madrid’s Barajas airports, which will be financed primarily by the fees it charges airlines.
READ ALSO: Why does Spain have so many ‘ghost’ airports that nobody uses?
From 2026 the legal limit on fee hikes that Aena has followed in recent years will come to an end. Faced with this new scenario, airlines like Ryanair are already trying to ensure that these fees are as low as possible and protect their bottom lines.
The hike would mean an average increase of 68 cents per passenger, bringing the Adjusted Maximum Revenue per Passenger (IMAAJ) up to €11.03 from the current €10.35.
Ryanair carried 200 million passengers across Europe last year, according to figures from AeroTime.
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