Ryanair warns of flight price hikes if taxes continue to climb at airports in Spain

The Irish budget airline plans to increase Spanish capacity by 40%, carrying 77 million extra passengers, in the next 10 years. However, the company is critical of Aena, the state-owned company that manages 46 airports and two heliports

Edurne Martínez

Madrid

Friday, 6 September 2024, 18:42

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Ryanair, currently the number one airline for passenger numbers in Spain, presented a growth plan for 2030 to increase air traffic by 40% for Spain, delivering 77 million extra passengers in the next 10 years. However, the lrish budget airline is critical of Aena, the state-owned company that manages 46 airports and two heliports in Spain and which is also the world's top airport operator by passenger volume. The criticism is over Aena's increases in taxes for airport use by the airlines, something that Ryanair believes could scupper its growth plans for the country because the airline will face increased costs. This is what Ryanair's CEO, Eddie Wilson, denounced this Thursday at a press conference in Madrid as he believes that ticket prices are likely to increase if the company's operating costs go up.

These costs are mainly due to the 4.1% increase in airport taxes by Aena in 2024 and the proposal to increase them by another 0.5% in 2025, the latter of which the airline has already appealed to Spain's competition watchdog, the national markets and competition commission (CNMC). To be precise, Ryanair claims that the fees have amounted to 600 million euros this year, of which 50 million euros correspond to the latest increase.

The airline accuses Aena of "failing to comply" with the Spanish government's proposal, which in 2021 called for a freeze on airport taxes until 2026 to help air traffic fully recover after the travel collapse caused by the pandemic. This is "slowing down" the company's growth in Spain and, in turn, the air traffic states the company. Ryanair announced a 6% increase in its capacity for 2025 compared to the 9% that it claims it would have grown by had this increase in fees not happened.

Despite this, the company announced the opening of two new routes from Madrid (Verona in Italy and Kaunas, Lithuania's second largest city after the capital Vilnius), bringing the total number of routes from Spain's capital city to 63. Even so, Ryanair has not opened any new regional base in Spain since 2016, while it has done so in other countries such as Italy and Morocco. In its strategic plan running to 2030 it envisaged an investment of 3.3 billion euros and the opening of five new bases, as well as increasing the capacity of the airports of Granada, Zaragoza, Valladolid, Jerez and Reus.

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