Ryanair will carry out a new cut of 1.2 million seats for next summer and will leave Asturias

Ryanair takes the scissors out again in Spain with a new capacity adjustment at Spanish airports. The CEO of the group Michael O’Leary was in charge of announcing this Wednesday in Madrid a cut of 1.2 million seats for the 2026 summer seasonwhich will mean a 10% reduction on its summer programming. These cuts are added to the 2 million seats that Ryanair has eliminated this year in the Spanish market due to the “excessive” rates and lack of competitiveness in these infrastructures that it blames on Aena.

“Aena and its main shareholder, the Spanish Government, continue to harm the growth of regional traffic, tourism and employment in Spain through high airport taxes and unjustified price increases. Aena should reduce airport taxes at underused regional airports, but instead, it plans to increase them by 7%, which represents the largest increase in taxes in more than a decade,” lamented the Irish manager before recalling that these seats “will be moved to lower-cost competing airports in Italy, Morocco, Croatia, Sweden and Hungary“.

After suppressing its activity at the airports of Vigo, Valladolid, Jerez and Tenerife North, over which it guarantees that it will continue without flying, Ryanair’s new adjustment will directly impact the Asturias regionwhere it will cease all its flights from the next summer season. From Dublin, however, they defend that the company intends to continue growing in the large Spanish airports. “Aena’s monopolistic approach to pricing is that small, underused regional airports must charge rates similar to those of the busiest main airports, such as Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Palma and Malaga,” questioned O’Leary.

The company that transports the most passengers in Spain claims to have presented two growth plans, including some of the airports that it is now abandoning, to Aena and the Government, who “decided to ignore the proposals, increase airport taxes and sacrifice potential growth and job creation.” In this context, O’Leary has directly pointed out Pedro Sánchez for being “incapable” of “stopping this airport monopoly”.

Among the proposals that the airline put on Aena’s table, according to the documents provided by the company, are plans to triple capacity in Valladolid, double it in Jerez and boost it by 74%, 38% and 36% in Vigo, Zaragoza and Asturias, respectively. But in all cases, Ryanair reproaches, the requests have not been heard.

Demands the dismissal of Bustinduy after the Brussels file

During his flight to Madrid, the Irish businessman came across another compelling reason to gather the media in the capital: the file that the European Commission has opened against Spain for fining the ‘low cost’ companies that charge for hand luggage. “If President Sánchez respects EU legislation, he should dismiss Bustinduy and cancel these illegal luggage fines” O’Leary demands. “We have been defending for months that this fine is absolutely illegal, Brussels was not happy with the Consumer’s response to its pilot project and what this statement says is that Regulation (EC) 1008/2008 defends that airlines can charge for this luggage and what the Government has to do is update the Spanish regulation” the airline expands.

News in expansion…