Ryanair will fully pull out of the northern Asturias area, additional consolidating the low-cost airline’s method of turning its again on Spain’s smaller regional airports and specializing in the tourism hotspots.
Ryanair flights will proceed working to a few worldwide locations from Asturias till March 2026, after which they may stop fully, CEO Michael O’Leary confirmed on Wednesday.
This consists of its flights to Rome, Brussels and Dusseldorf from Asturias’s airport.
The Irish airline additionally just lately discontinued its connection to London Stansted from the inexperienced area which homes the cities of Oviedo, Gijón and Avilés.
READ ALSO: Ryanair threatens to cut a million more seats to Spain by summer 2026
Ryanair has been drastically slicing flights to a lot of Spain’s smaller regional airports in 2025 to protest Spanish airport operator Aena’s airport expenses, that are as a consequence of improve to six.5 % by 2026.
This implies the airline should pay €11.03 per passenger, which Ryanair describes as “unjustifiable”, a criticism not shared by different finances carriers.
The airline already reduce 800,000 seats on flights to Spain this summer season and can slash 1,000,000 extra for the upcoming winter season. This represents a discount of just about two million seats by the top of 2025.
REVEALED: The flight routes to Spain Ryanair will soon cancel
Ryanair’s newest resolution will imply the entire elimination of flights from Asturias to Belgium (Ryanair’s Brussels route is the one one), a blow for a regional airport which already has a restricted variety of worldwide flights.
Nevertheless, it’ll nonetheless be potential to fly to Italy and Germany from Asturias regardless of Ryanair axing its Rome and Dusseldorf hyperlinks, as different airways function flights to Venice, Munich and Frankfurt.
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In September, Ryanair additionally introduced the closure of its Santiago de Compostela base and the cancellation of flights to Vigo (each airports within the Galicia area) in addition to slicing all flights to Tenerife North, and a discount in capability to Santander and Zaragoza.
Against this, they plan to extend seats by 600,000 to main Spanish airports akin to Madrid, Barcelona, Málaga, and Palma de Mallorca.
READ ALSO: Ryanair focuses on touristy Spain with nine new Málaga routes
“If Aena raises charges, we are going to take capability away from regional airports and allocate it to different, extra worthwhile airports, each in Spain and overseas,” O’Leary threatened.
The outspoken Ryanair CEO has predicted that “within the subsequent 5 or ten years, many of those airports will shut”.
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Ryanair’s newest flight cull is unhealthy information for Spanish tourism as authorities are supposedly making an attempt to sort out overtourism within the common vacation hotspots by selling lesser-known locations throughout the nation.
Inevitably, this might be very difficult to attain if there aren’t sufficient flights to those various locations.
READ ALSO: Will Ryanair’s cancelled flight routes to Spain be replaced by other airlines?
That is “a tourism disaster” for regional Spain, in accordance with Ryanair CEO Eddie Wilson.
Many Spanish information shops have reported that for years now regional governments have discreetly used millions in public funds to subsidise Ryanair as a method of convincing them to maintain flight routes to their territories regardless of low profitability.
They’ve additionally criticised Ryanair’s total angle, with one headline studying “How Ryanair became Spain’s top airline through insults, pressure, and conflict.”
In an interview with Cadena Ser radio station on Thursday, O’Leary mentioned Ryanair” needed to proceed rising in Spain however wanted “much less interference from communist ministers” in reference to Spanish Shopper Affairs Pablo Bustinduy, who the Ryanair head has beforehand depicted as a “clown” throughout a press convention.
READ ALSO: New tourism promo of Spain’s interior clashes with lack of international flights
