The company’s CEO, Eddie Wilson, explained at a press conference today, Thursday, that what Ryanair is criticising is that Aena’s measures are “ineffective” and do not support the government’s objectives of achieving more traffic at Spain’s regional airports. Wilson said Aena’s “excessive” charges and lack of “viable” incentives are damaging regional airports, limiting their growth and wasting areas of airport capacity.
“These airports have the necessary infrastructure and security, what they don’t have is the right pricing infrastructure,” he added. Ryanair has therefore decided to cease operations at Jerez (Cádiz) and Valladolid, will withdraw an aircraft based at Santiago de Compostela and will reduce traffic at Vigo (-61%), Santiago (-28%), Zaragoza (-20%), Asturias (-11%) and Santander (-5%) in what it considers a ‘completely avoidable’ loss.
In total, the company will reduce its capacity by 18% in Spain during the coming summer season because it considers that Aena’s regional airports are less competitive than their European equivalents and, therefore, traffic has to move to other places such as Sweden, Croatia, Hungary and Morocco.
This is especially relevant, moreover, given the current circumstances in the aeronautical market, with Airbus and Boeing delaying aircraft deliveries due to problems in the supply chain and, in the case of the latter, internal problems. In the past the airline has taken Palma airport to task over its airport fees although for the moment it appears 100 percent committed to its flight operations to Mallorca.
And, Ryanair took matters into its own hands on Thursday by scrapping several routes and significantly cutting flight frequencies at many major German cities. Michael O’Leary’s company will now offer 1.8 million fewer seats to Germany and cut 22 routes to various destinations, including Dresden and Hamburg. These cuts will take effect in 2025.
In May, German authorities hiked aviation tax by 22% per passenger as a way to shore up the government’s dwindling finances. But the move was met with pushback from the airline industry, with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) describing it as a “short-term cash grab” amid a period of sluggish economic growth for the country.
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