Ryanair vs. Aena dispute: the low-cost carrier closes a base in Spain and cuts flights

BarcelonaThe umpteenth dispute between Ryanair and the Spanish airport operator Aena is already having repercussions on the routes the company offers to the Spanish state. The Irish low-cost airline will close its Santiago base and cancel all flights to Vigo and Tenerife North, while keeping its bases in Valladolid and Jerez closed, and will reduce its capacity in Asturias, Santander, Zaragoza, Vitoria, and the Canary Islands this winter.

The airline has taken these decisions as part of its plan to reduce its capacity by 41% in the different Spanish regions (-600,000 seats) and by 10% in the Canary Islands (-400,000 seats) this winter, which will mean the loss of one million seats this year. The reason for these drastic cuts is "the excessive and uncompetitive airport charges applied by the airport operator."

Ryanair CEO Eddie Wilson said during the press conference to present the winter season that these reductions will further harm vulnerable airports and lead to "a loss of investment, connectivity, tourism and employment in regional Spain, as many routes will be economically in. Thus, the low cost will close its two-aircraft base in Santiago, resulting in the loss of a €171.5 million investment in Galicia. It will also suspend all flights to Vigo from January 2026 and to Tenerife North from the start of winter this year. Furthermore, the airports of Valladolid and Jerez will remain closed through winter 2025.

Wilson has also announced that capacity will be reduced at four other regional airports: Zaragoza (-45%), Santander (-38%), Asturias (-16%), and Vitoria (-). In addition, in the Canary Islands, it will cut seats in Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, and Gran Canaria. Ryanair will cancel a total of 36 direct connections with regional Spain and the Canary Islands. Ryanair's announcement to reduce its route network to the Spanish state had also raised doubts about what would happen at the airports of Girona and Reus, but for now the airline has not announced any changes to the Catalan airfields in the immediate future.

All these operational changes imply diverting two million seats annually to Italy, Morocco, Croatia, and Albania, according to the company. "Ryanair maintains its commitment to Spain, but we cannot justify continued investment in airports whose growth is blocked by excessive and uncompetitive fees," Wilson criticized, who asserted that the real problem is that there is little difference in fares between large and regional airports.

"Anti-tourism" policy

The executive criticized the Spanish government for "failing in the Spanish regions," whose airports are almost 70% empty. "Aena's decision to increase airport charges, already uncompetitive, by 6.62% next year is the latest proof that the monopolistic operator has no interest in developing traffic at regional airports and simply wants to focus on earning record profits from the country's main airports," he stated.

For all these reasons, the airline is once again calling on the National Commission of Markets and Competition (CNMC) and the Spanish government to reject the "excessive increases in charges" and extend the freeze on these taxes to protect regional connectivity, tourism, and employment. In his opinion, Pedro Sánchez's government has an "anti-tourism" policy and is underutilizing the infrastructure it has due to "a lack of knowledge of how the international aviation industry works." "They set the prices and you have to pay. Aena concentrates 85% of traffic in 10 airports and shows no interest in these regional airports. For all these reasons, we anticipate that many of these airports will close in the next 5 or 10 years," Wilson warned.

Aena's response

In response to this route cut and the accusations against Aena, the airport operator's president, Mauricio Lucena, issued a forceful statement condemning the decision. "It is difficult to find another case like Ryanair's in contemporary business history where the discrepancy between a company's operational excellence and the dishonesty of its communications policy is so striking," he said. The executive harshly criticized the "insolence" and "lack of inhibition" of the company's public demands. low cost towards the governments of the countries in which it operates "to obtain economic advantages."

"Ryanair has a disturbing plutocratic conception of the political system, that is, it frightens public opinion with the withdrawal of its planes, demands the resignation of the ministers of half of Europe and the president of the European Commission, laughs at democratically elected politicians and calls for laws to be changed in favor of companies with the greatest economic power," Lucena said. He then lists accusations made by Ryanair that he considers false, such as that the operation of the Spanish airport system is a consequence of Aena's abuse of its dominant position.

In conclusion, the president of the Spanish airports states that if these "were to evolve into the dream of demands, cries, lies and Ryanair's unpalatable extortion strategy, in the medium and long term, the airports would stop functioning well (as they do at present) and would not be financially sustainable."