The Irish low-cost airline Ryanair will finally cut 1.2 million seats for the 2026 summer season at Spanish airports, for which it is requesting a 50% reduction in airport taxes, and will close all flights to Asturias.
Ryanair's CEO, Michael O'Leary, announced this cutback at a press conference in Madrid, where he also announced the addition of 600,000 seats at the airports of Madrid, Barcelona, and Palma de Mallorca.
Ryanair had already spoken of a reduction in seats last September, which it then estimated at one million, and now specifies that it will be 1.2 million. These are in addition to the one million seats it had reduced in the previous winter season.
For O'Leary, in addition to reversing the 6% increase (0.68 cents) in fees for 2026 approved by Aena, the manager should lower fees at regional airports by 50% to incentivize traffic, especially at airports such as those in Valladolid and Jerez de la Frontera (Cádiz), which he had removed from his schedule last summer.
In addition to these, it removed Vigo and Tenerife Norte from its plans for this year's winter campaign, and now, for the summer of 2026, it is also eliminating Asturias.
All of its routes are profitable
Although the CEO has admitted that the company doesn't lose money on any of its routes, it will place the 25 new aircraft it will receive by next February in more profitable airports.
He assured that the low-cost airline is transferring its seat capacity to lower-cost airports in Morocco, Italy, Croatia, Albania, and Sweden, where governments are eliminating environmental taxes and reducing fees, according to O'Leary.
In the case of France, where capacity cuts have also been announced, the situation is "just as bad as in Spain."
Ryanair's CEO has stated that they have presented two growth plans to the Government and Aena, including some of the airports that are now closing, with which they would have increased traffic by 40% by 2030, up to 77 million passengers, although the Executive "has decided to sacrifice potential growth and job creation."
The Spanish regions, he says, can grow but need a Government committed to growth through the reduction of the cost of flights to and from the regions.
In his opinion, it is also necessary for the Minister of Consumer Affairs, Pablo Bustinduy, to "protect" consumers by putting an end to the increasing surcharges of online travel agencies and to respect the European Union legislation and the rulings of the Court of Justice of the EU that "clearly prevent" national governments from interfering in the way airlines set prices for seats or carry-on luggage.
