Spain panic as Ryanair to cut 1 million seats and go to Italy instead as airport war rages | World | News
Budget Airline Ryanir, the country’s airport operator Aena does not make higher accusations, the next summer flight flights to Spain to produce another million seats warned. So far, the Irish carrier has canceled two million chairs for this summer and next winter season to protest Aena’s 6.5% increase in wages.
Michael O’leary, CEO of Ryanir, said that after the Airline’s annual meeting, he would soon return to Madrid to Financial Times and that he would probably announce another million seats next summer ”. “If the costs in the regional Spain are too high, I will fly elsewhere, Mr Mr. O’leary added. “If the Spanish government cannot convince Aena [to back down]Then I don’t want to serve them. ”He announced that half a million of these seats, which have already taken from the regional airports, were directed to larger bases in Spain and even Italy.
Ryanir confirmed that this winter could not fly to Santiago de Compostela, Vigo, Valladolid, Jerez and Tenerife North, instead sent them to Malaga, Palma and Italy.
Aena decided to increase airport charges next year, which resulted in the highest wages of Spanish airports in ten years. This move was made despite the fact that Spanish airports reached record passenger numbers.
However, the Spanish airport authority insisted that the increase per passenger was only 0.68 € (£ 0.59). President Maurici Lucena accused Ryanir of “extortion ve and described the airline as“ uncertain ve and argued that he applied to make more flights even when he announced the interruptions. Spain’s Minister of Transportation óscar Puente Santiago supported Aena and called Ryanan’s tactics as “blackmail ..
Meanwhile, Consumer Affairs Minister Pablo Bustinuy criticized the European Commission for confirming that the Transportation Commissioner Apostolos Tzitzikostas will meet with Mr. O’leary in Brussels.
Spain is the second largest market of Ryanir after Italy and represents 18% of income last year. However, Mr. O’leary said he was ready to cut the capacity if the charges remain unchanged.
“You have a large monopoly country with a spain -sized country,” he added. Aena is a state -owned company, and the Spanish state has a 51% share through the state’s air navigation manager Enaire. The remaining stocks are processed to the public.
Aena runs 46 airports in Spain and welcomed 94 million international visitors last year. Ryanir is currently flying to more than 20 airports, including the popular tourism center Palma de Majorka (PMI), which currently undertook 33.3 million passengers in 2024.
Ryanir is pressuring to increase the competitiveness of Spain’s regional airports.
