Ryanair's exit leaves two Spanish airports in the doldrums

Ryanair’s withdrawal from two smaller regional Spanish airports has already hit operations, with passenger numbers falling drastically this year.

The Irish budget airline cut 800,000 seats across Spain and cancelled 12 routes earlier this year, ceasing entirely with operations at smaller airports like Jerez and Valladolid.

The low-cost carrier has cited Spanish airport operator Aena's high airport fees as the main reason why these smaller airports and not competitive enough for them.

As The Local has previously reported, routes have also been cut at other regional airports such as Santiago de Compostela, Asturias, Cantabria, and Zaragoza.

READ ALSO: Ryanair threatens more Spain flights cuts as airport operator hikes fees

But now the impact of Ryanair’s total withdrawals from Jerez (down south in Andalusia) and Valladolid (up north in Castilla y León) have been laid bare in new figures.

Valladolid in the first half of 2024 had just 41,725 passengers between January and June, some 56,000 fewer than in the same period in 2024. Local media reports that the nearby León Airport has recorded its highest passenger numbers in 14 years as a result of attracting flyers who might've previously used Valladolid.

The occupancy figures at Jerez airport are also worrying when compared to previous years. The provincial terminal had 96,638 passengers in June, which represents a fall of 7.6 percent compared to the same month last year.

The longer-term numbers also show a downward trend. Between January and June this year, Jerez airport recorded 385,549 passengers, a decrease of 11.6 percent compared to last year, when 436,282 passengers passed through the terminal.

However, the withdrawal from airports like Jerez and Valladolid does not mean Ryanair is pivoting away from the Spanish market.

To the contrary, the airline is not cutting routes throughout the rest of the country but actually adding to passenger numbers.

The airline added 1.5 million seats to larger and more popular airports such as Madrid, Málaga, and Alicante this year, further solidifying travel inequality between urban and rural Spain as the big cities get more overcrowded and emptier parts of the country have less tourism and worse transport links.

A recent tourism campaign by the Spanish government promoting inland Spain clashed with the scale backs at regional airports. The campaign, reported here by The Local, was clearly well-intentioned but contradicts (or ignores) the glaring shortage in international flights arriving at smaller airports in Spain's interior.

Zaragoza for example, which is now Spain's fourth most populous city with 691,000 inhabitants, only has regular international flights to and from London, Milan, Bucharest and Cluj-Napoca, as well as seasonal flights to Paris, Marrakech and Fez. Therefore, the best way for most international tourists to reach the capital of Aragón is flying to either Madrid or Barcelona and catching a train that lasts around one hour and 30 minutes.

Ryanair, along with other low-cost carriers like EasyJet and Vueling, carry a large bulk of these passengers so travellers go where the flights are.

READ ALSO: New tourism promo of Spain's interior clashes with lack of international flights

In the first half of 2025, Ryanair carried a staggering 32.64 million passengers in Spain, 6.6 percent higher than in the same period last year, when it carried 30.63 million passengers.

It is the airline that carries by far the most traffic in Spain, according to data from Aena, Spain’s airports operator.

The cuts at Jerez and Valladolid follow a long-running dispute over airport fees between Ryanair and Aena.

Ryanair has stuck to its guns and carried out the threats about reducing its flight routes in Spain due to what it called Aena's excessive fees, which are to be hiked as part of a new investment plan.

Aena will outline a new fee structure for the 2027-2031 period and introduce a programme of investment worth billions of euros to expand Barcelona El Prat and Madrid’s Barajas airports, which will be financed primarily by the fees it charges airlines.

Ryanair's CEO Michael O'Leary claims that Aena will “waste” billions of euros by “building facilities that airlines do not want or need as a way to increase fares.”

READ ALSO: Ryanair warns it may cut even more flights to Spain's smaller airports