'Isolating': Regional Spain reacts to Ryanair's huge flight cuts

Spain's airport operator Aena and the country's smaller regions have come out fighting following budget airline Ryanair's decision to further cut flight routes around Spain, accusing the company of "dishonesty" and pressuring democratically elected governments for "short-term economic benefits".

Budget carrier Ryanair on Wednesday confirmed its second major Spanish flight route reduction in 2025, after earlier this year it cut 13 flight connections to Spain. The low cost airline is cancelling 36 direct connections with regional airports in mainland Spain and the Canary Islands, as announced by the airline's CEO Eddie Wilson at a press conference held in Madrid on Wednesday September 3rd.

READ ALSO: Ryanair to scrap 36 flight routes to Spain

This means a 41 percent reduction of its capacity at regional airports on the Iberian Peninsula, as well as a 10 percent reduction in the Canary Islands. Ryanair will also suspend all flights to the northwestern Galician cities of Vigo and Santiago de Compostela, as well as to Tenerife North Airport.

REVALED: The flight routes Ryanair will cut in Spain this winter

Spain and Europe’s most popular airline has been engaged in a war of words with Aena for some time over these airport fees, and it was the reason why it slashed 800,000 passenger seats on Spanish flight routes earlier this year.

Chairman and CEO of Aena, Maurici Lucena, released a punchy statement online, suggesting Ryanair's true motivations for cutbacks are not what they seem: "It is difficult to find another case in contemporary business history like that of Ryanair, where the discrepancy between a company's operational excellence and the dishonesty of its communication policy is so striking," Lucena said.

"The insolence and uninhibited nature of Ryanair's public demands on democratic governments in the countries where it operates its aircraft," he added, is purely for "economic advantages."

"Ryanair's constant challenge to the Spanish airport regulatory framework and Aena's airport network model, considered a success story by experts worldwide, is not an isolated incident," Luena said. "It is, in fact, Ryanair's usual modus operandi in all the countries where it operates, where it constantly presses central and regional governments in order to obtain short-term economic benefits at the expense of taxpayers' money and the long-term sustainability of the airport system."

The announcement this week follows a longer-term trend of the budget airline cutting routes to smaller airports, and regional airport and tourism bosses have also come out against Ryanair, fearing the move may further isolate entire parts of Spain.

In Jerez, where Ryanair stopped flying last April as part of its first cut of 800,000 seats in the summer, locals fear an "irreparable void".

READ MORE: Ryanair's exit leaves two Spanish airports in the doldrums

"We are the only airport in Andalusia that has seen a decline in traffic. The infrastructure problems in the region accentuate our dependence on air connectivity, and a cut like this isolates us even more," Antonio Mariscal, president of the Jerez Tourism Cluster, told 20 Minutos.

Mariscal also highlighted the wider economic costs of reduced flight routes to the southern city. "The end of operations by an airline such as Ryanair translates into an annual loss of 160,000 passengers, of whom around 60 percent are tourists. And this, with an estimated average spend of €800, plus the knock-on effect, has an impact of €100 million on the city."

"If, according to the INE, we generate one job for every €100,000 of direct tourist spending, we would be talking about 1,000 jobs affected by the measure," he added, emphasising the effect beyond air travel.

The regional government in Arágon received news that Zaragoza airport will see a 45 percent reduction in Ryanair capacity with "some disappointment", but spokeswoman Mar Vaquero described decisions by the Ministry of Transport and Aena as a "failure".

Zaragoza "is a strategic airport in our region and we hope that the lack of capacity and the lack of negotiation between the Ministry and Aena with Ryanair will not further damage activity at Zaragoza airport and thereby reduce the possibility of travel," Vaquero said.

For its part, the Cantabrian government lamented that their "citizens were paying for the the conflict" between Aena and Ryanair, adding that it would attempt to convince the airline to backtrack on its decision to cut flights to Santander.

Ryanair already completely withdrew from Valladolid in January. It is also reducing capacity at other regional airports: Santander (down 38 percent), Asturias (down 16 percent), and Vitoria (down 2 percent). In the Canary Islands, in addition to the surprising exit from Tenerife North, the Irish low-cost airline is also reducing capacity at Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura, and Lanzarote.

This bucks the trend of Ryanair pulling out only from smaller regional airports in parts of Spain which receive far fewer tourists.

READ MORE: Ryanair's exit leaves two Spanish airports in the doldrums