Ryanair and easyJet flights warning as summer holidays cut to Spain and Portugal
Ryanair flight in Portugal (Image: Getty)Easyjet and Ryanair are among the major airlines having to rethink their summer plans, as the aviation industry is hit by a perfect storm of issues.Irish budget airline Ryanair is reducing its Spanish and Portuguese operations in 2026. Certain routes to the popular tourist hotspots are being axed entirely while others face reduced frequencies as as results of airport fees.The budget carrier blamed this reduction on airport fees imposed by Portugal's airport operator, environmental levies associated with the EU Emissions Trading System, and the nation's €2 travel tax.Key transport hubs, including Madrid, Barcelona and Málaga should maintain normal operations according to The Portugal News, while Regional facilities will suffer, including Tenerife North, Asturias and Vigo, among others.Following the removal of one million seats from its winter 2025 Spanish services, these further reductions could eliminate an additional 1.2 million seats from the summer schedule.This, in addition to with ongoing Middle Eastern tensions already affecting travel plans, UK travelers could face increasingly restricted choices when holidaying abroad.Investors have warned that Britain's easyJet might need to revise its outlook for the year as a whole amid concerns that uncertainty over jet fuel supplies and the wider impact of the war will prompt other revisions.EasyJet's CEO said on Monday that ticket prices will rise towards the end of the summer due to the Iran war, adding that the conflict was driving bookings to destinations like Spain and away from Turkey and Cyprus.The British carrier has hedged the majority of its fuel needs for the coming months but by the end of the summer those hedges start to come off and, depending on the fuel price then, ticket prices could jump."The reality is that prices will start feeding through to the consumer towards the back end of the summer," CEO Kenton Jarvis said, as the airline opened a new base at Newcastle Airport in northeast England.Germany's Lufthansa became the first major carrier to ground planes due to high jet fuel costs as airlines counted the cost of the Iran war.Dutch carrier KLM has also said that it would cut 160 flights in the coming month due to fuel costs.Oil prices have risen since the US and Israel carried out joint strikes on Iran six weeks ago and Iran responded by striking sites across the Middle East and closing the critical Strait of Hormuz trade route.Around 20% of all global oil traded passes through the strait.The Iran war has sent jet fuel prices soaring, disrupting the global aviation industry and forcing airlines to raise fares, curb growth plans and rethink forecasts, Reuters news agency reported.
