Ryanair responds to Aena after the latter came out yesterday and rejected the Irish airline’s arguments about the lack of incentives at Spain’s regional airports. The Irish company insists that it will eliminate 800,000 seats in five Spanish infrastructures (although it will add 1.5 million in others) and will abandon those in Valladolid and Jerez “exclusively due to the abandonment of these regional airports.” He also assures that the semi-public manager’s claim that airlines pay two euros per passenger on any of them is “flatly false.” “Aena’s claim that its rates are ‘some of the lowest in Europe’ is false. The airport tax per passenger in Valladolid is several times higher than that of competing and more efficient airports in regions of Italy or Poland, where Ryanair continues to grow during the summer of 2025,” explains the ‘low cost’ giant in a statement, in which he adds that the semi-public company has “repeatedly deceived” Ryanair “and the Spanish” about its rates. “It has systematically ignored the resolution of the General Directorate of Civil Aviation (DGAC) of 2021, which established that rates should remain frozen for five years.” Related News In standard summer No Ryanair fulfills its threat against Aena for the increase in rates and eliminates 800,000 seats for Spain Antonio Ramírez CerezoIn addition, he insists that, despite this, Aena has tried to apply successive annual increases, including the most recent one of more of 4%, which it imposed on airlines in 2024. Of the same, it points out that if the rates are frozen this year it is thanks to the intervention of the CNMC . “However, they are still higher than the levels determined by the DGAC in 2021.” No bases in Spain in 2016 To defend its position, Ryanair gives the example of the Castellón airport, one of the few that Aena does not manage in Spain, which it says which is the fastest growing region. And it once again makes a comparison with others in the same area at the European level. «In 2024 alone, Ryanair invested more than $3 billion in European airports, receiving more than 30 new aircraft and opening 5 new bases. In contrast, Ryanair has not opened a base in Spain since 2016, due solely to Aena’s excessive rates,” he points out. In this sense, he believes that the airport manager should ask himself why Ryanair has 8 million annual passengers in Malaga and none in Granada. “The answer is that Granada’s airport fees are too high, a common problem in the Spanish regional level.” He also describes as “false” the accusation of the company led by Maurici Lucena that the cuts announced yesterday are part of a trend at the European level. “Break the monopoly” Also as an argument, the Irish company recalls that the ineffectiveness of the incentive schemes of Aena was recognized by the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, “who, on December 13, 2024, confirmed that they had not met their objective of increasing traffic at regional airports.” With the Valladolid native (of whom Ryanair will leave his hometown and of which he was mayor) and the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, Ryanair met in January of last year to present a plan with the aim of increasing traffic in Spain in a +40% (20 million additional passengers, mostly destined for regional airports). Now, the airline that transports the most passengers in Spain goes one step further and urges the Executive to break Aena’s monopoly “and allow regional governments to effectively manage their airports, with the aim of increasing traffic, tourism and employment in the regions that Aena has abandoned for so long.
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