{"id":485370,"date":"2025-10-09T10:05:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T10:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/485370\/"},"modified":"2025-10-09T10:05:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T10:05:10","slug":"ryanair-slashes-over-a-million-seats-on-flights-to-spain-in-battle-over-airport-fees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/485370\/","title":{"rendered":"Ryanair slashes over a million seats on flights to Spain in battle over airport fees"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Low-cost airline Ryanair<\/a> has announced it will cut 1.2 million seats in its Spanish flight schedule next summer as the airline continues to battle regional airport fees.<\/p>\n

The airline said on Wednesday, 8 October, it will also stop all flights to and from Asturias Airport in northern Spain<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ryanair claims its decision comes as the Spanish airport group Aena \u201ccontinues to raise its uncompetitive airport fees at Spanish (mostly empty) regional airports\u201d.<\/p>\n

This reduction in summer flight capacity to and from Spanish destinations, which is the equivalent to around 10 per cent fewer seats, follows Ryanair\u2019s one million seat cuts to regional Spain<\/a> for winter 2025.<\/p>\n

Ryanair Group CEO Michael O\u2019Leary claims: \u201cAena and its major shareholder, the Spanish government, continue to harm regional traffic growth, tourism and jobs in Spain through high airport fees and unjustified price increases.\u201d <\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Leary is calling for Aena to lower airport fees at underused regional airports, but instead said the airport body is planning to increase them by seven per cent, the highest fee increase for over a decade.<\/p>\n

He said that the 1.3m seats will be taken away from regional airports and given to some of Spain\u2019s bigger airports, but mainly to \u201clower-cost competitor airports\u201d in Italy, Morocco, Croatia, Sweden, and Hungary.<\/p>\n

The airline boss also called out what he described as \u201cillegal bag fines\u201d imposed on Ryanair, and said that despite the government’s promises to reverse them, no action has yet been taken.<\/p>\n

The European Commission on Wednesday said fines imposed by Spain on Ryanair and other budget airlines for charging extra fees on cabin bags breached regulations.<\/p>\n

Last year, the Spanish Consumer Rights Ministry fined Ryanair, easyJet, Norwegian, IAG’s low-cost airline Vueling, and Volotea a combined \u20ac179m (\u00a3155m) for practices such as charging for cabin luggage, Reuters reported.<\/p>\n

The Commission said it has sent a letter of formal notice to Spain, which has two months to respond and address the shortcomings.<\/p>\n

Pablo Bustinduy, Spanish Consumer Rights Minister, accused the Commission of siding with airlines against consumers and said they will \u201cdefend with all rigour our position\u201d.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Mr O\u2019Leary stated that: \u201cBustinduy\u2019s bag fines are clearly illegal, as they are in breach of EU Regulation on airline pricing freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Prime Minister Sanchez has any respect for EU law, then he should dismiss Bustinduy, and cancel these illegal bag fines,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Leary concluded that Ryanair \u201clooks forward to returning to growth\u201d in regional Spain when Aena fees are reduced.<\/p>\n

After Ryanair\u2019s announcement, Aena’s Executive Vice President, Javier Mar\u00edn, responded that \u201cthe Spanish airport system is very competitive, airport taxes and fees are very competitive, and, in fact, other airlines are taking over the routes this airline is leaving. <\/p>\n

\u201cTherefore, we will continue working with regional institutions, with promotional initiatives, with the incentives we have implemented\u2026 because the Spanish airport model has led us to be one of the countries in the world with the most air traffic, and therefore, we have to think not only in the short term, but also in the long term, and not just about one company, but about all the companies that fortunately trust the Spanish airport system.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Independent has contacted the Spanish Consumer Rights Ministry for comment.<\/p>\n

Read more:<\/strong> <\/strong>\u2018Tourism disaster\u2019: Ryanair cuts three Spanish airports from roster after \u2018excessive\u2019 price hikes<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":485371,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5312],"tags":[2000,299,104],"class_list":{"0":"post-485370","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spain","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-spain"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115343649915937070","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485370\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/485371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}