Ryanair cuts flights to several European countries, including Spain and Italy
A Ryanair flight (Stock)(Image: Getty)Ryanair has announced it will be cutting routes in some of Europe's most popular destinations due to high costs at airports.The Irish airline has reduced seat capacity for Winter 2025 across Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Spain and in Rome in Italy. It cites the reduction in capacity and cancellation of routes due to the high costs at European airports.Ryanair has made calls to several European governments, calling on them to address cost issues surrounding airports. The affected countries include:GermanyRyanair has reduced its German Winter ’25 capacity by over 800,000 seats and cancelled 24 routes across nine high-cost German airports (including Berlin, Hamburg, and Memmingen), while Dortmund, Dresden, and Leipzig will remain closed. As a result, Ryanair’s overall capacity in Germany will fall below Winter ‘24 levels.Ryanair’s CMO, Dara Brady, said: "Germany’s air travel market is broken and needs an urgent fix. Due to its excessive access costs, Germany has only recovered 88% of its pre-Covid traffic, which is by far the worst recovery of any major European market. Until the excessive (and rising) aviation tax, ATC charges, Security Fees and airport costs are addressed by the Government, German air traffic will simply continue to decline whilst other more competitive European countries (with no aviation taxes) benefit from turbocharged Ryanair traffic growth – at Germany’s expense."Riga, LatviaRyanair has reduced its Riga Winter ‘25 capacity by 160,000 seats (-20%) and cut seven international routes – Aarhus, Berlin, Edinburgh, Gdansk, Gothenburg, Memmingen, and Paris Beauvais due to rising access costs (airport fees, aviation tax), which make Riga less competitive as traffic remains below pre-Covid levels (90%).CCO, Jason McGuinness, said: “Ryanair regrets being forced to reduce our Riga Winter ‘25 capacity by 20% (160,000 seats) and cancel 7 international routes. These cuts follow rising access costs at Riga Airport – which have increased by 15% since Ryanair opened its Riga base in 2021. Uncompetitive access costs only serve to undermine Latvia’s traffic recovery – which remains 10% below pre-Covid levels – and has directly resulted in the loss of routes, reduced connectivity."LithuaniaRyanair has said it is making zero growth in Lithuania for Winter ’25, as rising airport access costs continue to block recovery, limit connectivity and prevent the country from unlocking its full potential for tourism, jobs, and economic growth.CCO, Jason McGuinness, said: “It’s disappointing that Ryanair will deliver zero growth in Lithuania for Winter ’25, which is entirely the result of the rising access costs at Lithuanian airports – with Lithuanian Airports choosing to raise charges at Vilnius by 30% and Palanga by 7%. These increases, at a time when other European countries are cutting costs to drive growth, are leaving Lithuania hopelessly uncompetitive, slowing its recovery and resulting in reduced connectivity, forcing the reallocation of capacity to faster-growing, lower-cost markets across Europe."The opening of the expanded Vilnius terminal has doubled available capacity at the Airport, providing a clear opportunity to boost connectivity, tourism, and jobs – but rising access costs are holding Vilnius back, preventing the airport and Lithuania from turning this potential into tangible growth and enhanced connectivity."Tallinn, EstoniaThe Tallinn Winter ‘25 capacity is reduced by 40%, resulting in the loss of 110,000 seats and 5 international routes – Milan Bergamo, Paphos, Rome Ciampino, Venice Treviso, and Vienna – on top of the 45% capacity cut (-230,000 seats) already announced to Tallinn’s Summer ’25 schedule.CCO, Jason McGuinness, said: “Tallinn Airport’s illogical decision to increase airport charges by 70% at a time when other European airports and countries are reducing charges to stimulate investment and travel has forced Ryanair to reduce its Tallinn Winter’25 capacity by 40%, resulting in the loss of 110,000 seats and 5 international routes. When combined with this Summer’s cuts Tallinn hast lost over 340,000 Ryanair seats across the full year. These cuts will severely damage traffic, jobs, and tourism growth in Estonia."SpainSummer 2026 schedule to Regional Spain cut by 1.2m seats (-10%). Ryanair will also stop all flights to/from Asturias Airport These regrettable cuts follow Ryanair’s 1m seat cuts to Regional Spain for Winter 2025.CEO Michael O’Leary, said: “AENA and its major shareholder, the Spanish Govt, continue to harm regional traffic growth, tourism and jobs in Spain through high airport fees and unjustified price increases. AENA should be lowering airport fees at underused Regional airports, but instead they plan to increase them by 7%, the highest fee increase for over a decade. The Spanish Govt has failed to stimulate Regional tourism and jobs, as it continues to protect the Aena Monopoly’s high fee operations. We regret that these fee increases make Regional Spanish airports uncompetitive, and this is why Ryanair is switching 1.2m more seats away from Regional airports in Spain in S2026, to some of Spain’s bigger airports, but mainly to lower-cost competitor airports in Italy, Morocco, Croatia, Sweden, and Hungary.Rome, ItalyRyanair will reduce its Rome-based aircraft by one unit (from 17 to 16 aircraft) for W25 and will deliver zero traffic growth in Rome this winter.CEO, Michael O’Leary said: “Rome’s high access costs, incl. the harmful Municipal Tax, and (way above inflation) airport fee increases (+44% in Ciampino, +15% in Fiumicino), together with the artificial Ciampino flights cap, have forced Ryanair to reduce one Rome-based aircraft for Winter ’25, which means zero traffic growth in Rome this winter."Join our Dublin Live breaking news service on WhatsApp. Click this link to receive your daily dose of Dublin Live content.We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. 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