Airlines schedule a record winter with an uneven map due to Ryanair’s regional withdrawal

Spanish airlines schedule the highest capacity recorded to date in winter for the period from the end of October to the end of March. According to the data offered this Wednesday by the majority employer in the sector, the Association of Airlines (ALA), airline companies have scheduled around 140 million seats at the doors of the new season, which represents 4.7% more than last year’s winter planning.

But, naturally, the adjustment of one million seats provided by Ryanair at regional airports – the airline that transports the most passengers in Spain – has given rise to an uneven connectivity map. Although communities like Andalusia has increased its programming by 7.5%above the average, despite the 6.7% cut in Jerez – weighed down by the departure of Ryanair -, others such as Galicia has diluted its programming by 17.1% given the reductions of 30 and 8% at the Santiago and Vigo airports after the withdrawal of the Irish airline.

Other airports where Ryanair has eliminated all its seats, such as Tenerife North, where Not only has programming not decreased, but it has grown by 7.5% thanks to the reinforcements announced in recent weeks by other airlines such as Iberia Express, Vueling, Binter or Wizz Air. Asked about the strategy of the Irish group, the president of the association Javier Gándara did not want to go into details and limited himself to responding that “any company has the right to make its commercial programming as it considers.”

From ALA they remember that this uneven map has also been influenced by the delays in public subsidies that airlines advance in the form of discounts to residents in extra-peninsular territories. At the end of September, Gándara has estimated the settlement that the Government has pending with the sector at more than 700 million euros and has regretted that Congress has vetoed a credit of 1.2 billion proposed by the popular group to cover these non-payments. For the association, the lower programming seen this winter in regions such as the Balearic Islands (-1.5%) may have been reduced by these delays in aid.

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