Ryanair has grounded flights next year to a popular Portuguese destination – because of EU taxes.
Yesterday, the Irish low-cost airline revealed it would not be running flights to and from the Azores, Portugal’s mid-Atlantic archipelago, from March 29th next year.
The budget carrier said the decision had been made because of increased Air Traffic Control charges, a new €2 travel tax and high airport fees.
The move will result in a loss of six different routes to and from the Azores, which, in total, carried 400,000 passengers a year.
Ryanair hit out at ‘French airport monopoly ANA’ which they claim ‘has no plan to grow low-fare connectivity to the Azores’ and is responsible for the airport fees.
The airline called for the Portuguese government to ‘intervene’ and make sure the country’s airports ‘benefit’ locals instead.
Ryanair’s CCO Jason McGuinness described how ‘disappointed’ the airline is with the situation.
He said: ‘We are disappointed that the French airport monopoly ANA continues to raise Portuguese airport fees to line its pockets, at the expense of Portuguese tourism and jobs – particularly on the Portuguese islands.
Yesterday, low-cost carrier Ryanair revealed it would not be running flights to and from the Azores, Portugal, from March 29th 2026
‘As a direct result of these rising costs, we have been left with no alternative other than to cancel all Azores flights from 29 March 2026 onwards and relocate this capacity to lower cost airports elsewhere in the extensive Ryanair Group network across Europe.’
Mr McGuinness continued: ‘This loss of low fare connectivity to the Azores is direct result of the French monopoly airport operator – VINCI – imposing excessive airport charges across Portugal (which have risen by up to 35% since Covid) and the anti-competitive enviro taxes imposed by the EU, which exempt more polluting long haul flights to the US and Middle East, at the expense of EU remote regions such as the Azores.
‘After 10 years of year-round Ryanair operations, one of Europe’s most remote regions will now lose direct low-fare flights to London, Brussels, Lisbon, and Porto due to ANA’s high airport fees and Portuguese Govt. inaction.’
Last month, Ryanair announced it would scrap 24 routes to and from Germany, cutting nearly 800,000 seats in total.
It comes as tensions rise over what the airline describes as an ‘exorbitant’ air travel tax.
Ryanair, which describes itself as Europe’s number one airline, said the move will affect nine German airports, including Berlin, Hamburg and Memmingen, while Dortmund, Dresden and Leipzig will remain closed.
As a result, Ryanair’s overall capacity in Germany will fall below Winter ’24 levels.
The low-cost airline blames the government policies for damaging the country’s competitiveness within the European market.
The budget carrier put the reasoning down to increased Air Traffic Control charges, a new €2 travel tax and high airport fees
In a statement issued yesterday, Ryanair accused the German government of making air travel increasingly unaffordable through high aviation taxes and rising operational costs, including fees for air traffic control, airport management, and security.
Ryanair’s CMO, Dara Brady, said: ‘Germany’s air travel market is broken and needs an urgent fix.
‘Due to its excessive access costs, Germany has only recovered 88 per cent of its pre-COVID traffic, which is by far the worst recovery of any major European market.
‘Until the excessive (and rising) aviation tax, ATC charges, Security Fees and airport costs are addressed by the Government, German air traffic will simply continue to decline whilst other more competitive European countries (with no aviation taxes) benefit from turbocharged Ryanair traffic growth – at Germany’s expense.’
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