War between Ryanair and Spain's airport operator escalates, as Aena manager accuses airline of 'scaring' people

Ryanair has been fighting with Spanish airport operator Aena for years, when in the aftermath of the pandemic Aena urged airports to start charging airlines for offering them their services and bases once again. The latest episode of this battle happened on Wednesday, when the Irish airline announced a cut of 600,000 seats at Spanish airports. Aena responded with a statement signed by its president Maurici Lucena, in which he accuses the company of fear-mongering with these threats and business decisions in order to manipulate public opinion.

"The insolence and disinhibition of Ryanair's public demands to democratic governments in the countries where it operates, in order to obtain economic advantages, reveal two deep-rooted and unedifying characteristics of this airline," Lucena says in the text. Aena has proposed a rise in 2026 airport charges of 0.68 euros. "Everyone knows that a passenger's decision to take a plane does not depend on whether the airline ticket will cost 68 cents more next year, but Ryanair insists time and again on the contrary, while it has shamelessly increased its airline tickets in the last year by an average of 21%," Lucena explains.

Moreover, the increase in Aena's fares from 2023 has meant an increase in tickets of 2 euros at regional airports, well below the average for the network's airports, which is around 10 euros. These subsidised fares "demonstrate the efforts of Aena and the government to promote tourism in these territories". According to Maurici Lucena, "it is not true that Ryanair eliminates routes at these airports because fares are expensive. The reality is more prosaic: it decreases them because it moves its planes to airports where it can set higher ticket prices and earn more money - at the major Spanish airports, for example".